Davies tries hard in Welsh Alpine Championships

Gary Baker on 26/03/2012

Former European junior champion Charlotte Davies had to give way to the opposition at the Welsh Alpine Championships in Champery, Switzerland, this year.

Davies, who won the Euro slalom title in 2010 and also took the British title the previous year, came home an agonizing fourth in the Giant Slalom behind Swiss pair Shelia Darbellay and Corina Brunner, first and second respectively, with Russian Ekaterina Popova in the bronze position.

The 20-year-old Welsh ace was just 0.4 seconds behind Popova in a time of 1min 51.97secs over the course.

She came home in 55.40secs on her first run, with Canterbury's Natalia Harte setting a blistering pace with an amazing 52.82secs - well ahead of anyone else - on that run before she crashed down the order on the second run to end in seventh place.

With the piste slowing down, Davies was also down on her first attempt to come home in 56.33secs, 2.23secs behind winner Darbellay.

And Davies' luck did not change either in the Slalom event where she finished seventh, three seconds behind British winner Imogen Taylor, 17, who is based in Austria.

Davies was in the medal hunt after the first run where she recorded a time of 49.36secs to lie second behind Taylor.

But she suffered a difficult second run, only managing to record 51.24secs which was well down on any of the other eventual top ten which saw her slip down to seventh place overall.

The Championships attracted skiers from right across Europe and beyond, with the final two days of the four-day event dedicated to getting the children out on the slopes to compete, resulting in some excellent times for many.

Snowsport Wales chief executive Robin Kellen returned from Champery buoyed with enthusiasm after four days of competition.

Kellen said: "It is the fifth consecutive year that we have been going to Champery for this. We are pleased it was once again a very successful event.

"We had four days of racing, two days of international races with 15 different nations and 130 competitors there.

"There was a lot of opportunity for the British skiers and Welsh skiers to test themselves against the internationals and gain some good ranking points.

"We have traditionally done well on the plastic, artificial ski slopes within the UK. Wales has developed a real strong position where we have the number one male and female on the artificial slopes so it was good for them to race on snow again."

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