Rochdale ski sensation Daisi Daniels returned to winning ways at the Delancey British Alpine Skiing Championships in Tignes on Monday.
The 15-year-old racer began her bid to defend her overall title with a gold medal in the Under-16 category of the female Super G race with a time of 55.90 seconds.
The Championships, which run from March 25 to April 6, feature the best the nation has to offer, including Olympians Dave Ryding, Laurie Taylor, Alex Tilley and Charlie Guest, whilst also showcasing the best young talent such as Daniels.
“I’m really happy with today, I thought I put down a decent run,” said Daniels, who came second in the same event at last year’s British Championships.
“I was actually quite scared when I was going down because of the line that I was taking.
“I chose a very direct line towards the bottom, but it paid off. I was happy that I fought to stay in.
“Racing at the British Champs means a lot because in the future I’ll be able to look back and think ‘I’ve raced there’ and it’s something to put on applications in the future, and it’s to be recognised.
“Last year was a good year for me, I managed to take away the title which I’m very happy about. This year I can hopefully keep the title.”
Despite being one of the most promising young ski racers in the nation, Daniels revealed that she only got into the sport by mistake, but is loving it and has been inspired by the recent Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.
“I’ve been skiing since about four years old,” said Daniels, who now trains and races with the British Ski Academy.
“My mum won some tickets to ski indoors but she didn’t want to ski, so I did.
“I went on, and then someone came over to my mum later that day and said ‘is that your daughter’, and she said ‘yes – what’s she done?’ and they said ‘oh nothing, I think you should put her in a race club!’
“So I joined Chill Factore race team, and then from that I joined the British Ski Academy and just started racing, I’ve loved skiing.
“It was amazing seeing the Olympic athletes, I saw their runs and I can learn from watching them ski, I watched the Olympics on TV and I watch the World Cup races, it’s really inspired me.”
To follow the progress of the Delancey British Alpine Ski Team visit www.teambss.org.uk or follow @teambss on Twitter. As Principal Sponsor of British Ski and Snowboard, specialist real estate investment and advisory company Delancey is proud to be able to provide British athletes with the support they require to win World Cup and Winter Olympic medals. For more information visit www.delancey.com
Image courtesy of Racer Ready, with thanks.