Highlander's solid start to Olympic season

Published on Saturday 5 November 2005 02:49

AFTER a storming first run, Scots skier Alain Baxter turned in a creditable performance to finish 12th in Landgraaf, Netherlands, in his opening FIS race of the Olympic season yesterday.

He stood fourth on the leader board on 23.06sec after his first descent but slipped to 12th overall when he was clocked at 0.33 slower on his second run.

"I was very pleased with the first run," Baxter said. "But I think I was trying too hard on the second. I didn't ski as well as I wanted. Overall, though, it was a very positive ski for me."

Though he had complained about the soft conditions in training, the organisers had hardened up the artificial piste for the day of competition and Baxter thought it was in good shape: "But it is in the nature of indoor skiing that the gates are closer together, nine and a half metres instead of 11 and the second run was tighter," said the Highlands skier, before adding, "It's the difference between skiing in training and competition." The winner was Sweden's 20-year-old world junior silver medallist, Mattias Hargin, who was just over half a second faster than the Scot on aggregate.

Baxter's younger brother, Noel, skied out on the second run while third-string Briton, James Leizinger, was 27th.

But there was plenty to enthuse about as Baxter senior squeezed ahead of the two men he had predicted would be his main rivals, Jure Kosir of Slovenia and Norway's Lars Myhre. Kosir, former Olympic bronze medallist, was beaten by the narrowest of margins over the two runs of 0.01sec while Myhre was too far behind on his first run to make up the deficit. In fifth just 0.20sec ahead of Baxter was the 1998 Olympic champion Hans-Petter Buraas of Norway.

The Scot led the Norwegian after the first run by 0.12sec, but the Nagano gold medallist skied a superior second run.

Skiing with new equipment and from a start position of 20, Baxter can feel satisfied with his performance and his skis. His aim had been to finish in the top ten, but fourth after the first run will have given him heart. In the Europa Cup knockout competition, however, he fared less well. Though he professed to liking the format, he could finish no higher than 27th.

This is the second FIS race that the Netherlands has staged after its successful debut on the calendar last season. Landgraaf is the biggest indoor winter sports arena in the world.

Baxter now heads to Austria with his Austrian coach Christian Schwaiger for two weeks to look for suitable snow cover on glaciers to hone his technique prior to the North American season. The first FIS World Cup slalom of the new season is in Beaver Creek in December.