Millie Knight has won Britain’s first medal at the 2015 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships in Panorama, Canada.

The 16 year old visually impaired skier and her guide, Jen Kehoe, took Silver in the Giant Slalom race on Sunday, narrowly being beaten by defending champion Alexandra Frantseva and guide Semen Pliaskin of Russia.

 

Knight and Kehoe have had a great season in the Giant Slalom, winning the overall World title, and led by 1.58 seconds after the 1st run. However, the defending champion’s greater experience showed in the 2nd run and they stormed through to win in 2 minutes 24.05 seconds with Knight and Kehoe 0.34 seconds back. Australia’s Melissa Perrine and guide Andrew Bor were 3rd in a time of 2:25.41.

Knight, who becomes the youngest medal winner at these World Championships, will be looking to add to her tally in the Slalom which takes place on Tuesday. Her delight at winning her first major championship medal was apparent “Today has been amazing, the course has been fantastic and I’m very happy with my race”. Kehoe added that “We’ve been working really hard in training on keeping our distance constant and clean and I think we achieved that today. We are really happy”.

In the Men’s competition, sit skier Ben Sneesby added to his 16th in the Super-G with a 14th in the GS and James Whitley started his campaign with an 18th place in the standing class. There was less fortune for Mick Brennan and Chris Lloyd who both failed to finish.

The 2015 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships will be held from 2-10 March in Panorama, Canada and will see 130 athletes from 30 countries compete in what will be the biggest gathering of skiers since the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Games.

Competition starts on 4 March and you can follow all the live action at the event website http://www.paralympic.org/panorama-2015

Written by Disability Snowsport UK