In bright sunshine and near perfect piste conditions Dougie Crawford completed his title hat trick today when he collected the Mens Downhill championships on the penultimate day of The British Land National Ski Championships.
Chemmy Alcott won the women's downhill to add to her giant slalom title, while Crawford added the Downhill to his Giant Slalom and Super G titles.
Alcott and Crawford go head-to-head tomorrow for the overall Victor Ludorum title in the Super Combined which scores one Super G followed by a one run Slalom. Crawford is well ahead on points. He would have won the Victor Ludorum title last year if the Super Combined had been included in the overall championship aggregate. This year it is, and the Scot is now a clear favourite to win.
The overall trophy, which aggregates all of the championship disciplines points was introduced in 1992, and Alcott has already won it seven times since then.
But if he could carry off the win, Crawford would strike a blow for British male skiers who have not won the overall Victor Ludorum title since Alain Baxter in 2001.
Alcott was on completely dominant form in the womens downhill triumphing on a piste she knows well and likes. She won by 4.35 seconds over Warwickshires Niki Sole, but behind there is an encouragingly strong group of British women who skied the blue riband discipline today.
It was clearly the best day of the championships weather wise, it was a really nice, lovely easy course perfect for the national championships. It was really nice win. But for me it has been so nice to have a good battle with Louise Thomas this week, and so it is a shame she crashed today. Hopefully that has not put her off downhill. She does not love it anyway. I started quite late into downhill, at 18, and I love it. Today especially it was not about nerves but just about me wanting to go all out and charge it, that is a very nice feeling to have such confidence in your skiing. Said Alcott.
Crawford was delighted not only that his skiing is coming back on strong this week, but especially today to win the Downhill title for the first time in his career. He shared the overall Mens Combined title three years ago with Noel Baxter, but is now favourite to win the overall mens title and the Victor Ludorum cup.
The Scot was just under one second ahead of second places TJ Baldwin (Norwich) who won the British Junior Downhill title again, while Niki Sole (Warwks) won the Womens Junior championship.
Crawford commented: My run went really well, very smooth and so I was pretty confident. It was getting a little bit choppy on some of the corners, but it held together well. I am just really pleased to have come away with another title. I have not won this and so it is nice to get my name on it. This is always the one I really wanted to win. The first time I came here I did really well in the downhill and so I always wanted this. I have done quite a lot of downhill in recent years and so I am really confident on this hill.
Further recognising the substantial long term support by Sir John Ritblat and The British Land Company,for British ski racing and these championships, the downhill is now known the Sir John Ritblat Downhill.
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