Ski cross racer Scott Kneller became Australia’s first World Cup gold medalist ever in his discipline and this this season with a surprise victory in Italy last night..
Competing at the Innichen/San Candido resort in only his second World Cup season and going into the final with the 12th fastest qualifying time, the 21-year-old AIS/NSWIS scholarship athlete held on to cross the line merely 20-centimetres ahead of Switzerland’s Alex Fiva with American John Treller in third.
Kneller’s win puts him into second place on the season’s standings, just eight points behind leader Patrick Gasser from Switzerland.
Head coach Matt Lyons heaped praise on Kneller, who rebounded from 19th place the day before on the same course, by saying that he skied a highly strategic race to bag his first ever podium result.
The result is only the fourth time an Australian has stood on the podium in this fledgling ski discipline, which experienced its first Olympics in Vancouver earlier this year.
“Scotty skied to perfection today and it was a credit to how smart he executed what we spoke about before the final,” a beaming Lyons said.
“We talked about the need to wait for the right moment and race strategically, which is what he did to perfection today.”
Kneller, who is aiming for a top five ranking by the end of this season, had to fight hard all day with second places in the quarters and semi-final and a relatively slow start in the final.
Coming from third place in the middle of the medal event, the NSW-based athlete waited for the right time to apply pressure before grabbing the lead towards the end of the 1050-metre course. He then concentrated on skiing clean lines to hold his slender lead to greet the finish line.
Lyons said the win was partly a huge surprise to him, given that the field boasted many more experienced and hotly tipped competitors, but also Kneller’s gold medal performance was, to some degree, predictable as the Australian has made many supreme sacrifices to prepare for this World Cup season.
Lyons added that he has always believed in the potential Kneller has regularly shown since switching to ski cross from alpine skiing.
The hard work by Lyons and his five member AIS/NSWIS ski cross squad is now delivering great results. Another admirable result in Italy is the speed shown by Anton Grimus, who enjoyed a top 10 finish in only his second World Cup start.
Unfortunately an uncontrollable racing mishap in the quarter finals, after qualifying fourth fastest, ended the young Mt Buller skier’s day, however, Grimus’s weekend signaled that further improvement and success are on the horizon.
In the ladies’ event, three-time World Cup medalist Jenny Owens was the best performed, finishing the day in 17th, while Sami Kennedy placed 20th and Katya Crema was in 25th position.
