SWITZERLAND – A top-10 finish, personal best, and attention-grabbing performance.
That's one way to start the ski cross world cup season for Banff’s Zach Belcyzk.
The 24-year-old snagged eighth at the FIS Ski Cross World Cup season opener Tuesday (Dec. 15) on Arosa, Switzerland's 470-metre course filled with jumps and sharp turns.
“Today was a wild experience,” said Belcyzk in a press release. “A couple starts at the end I didn’t love but other than that I was just focusing on skiing my line.
“I tried not to worry about who was next to me in the gate and just sort of worried about myself.”
Belcyzk's previous top result on the world cup was 10th in 2019 in France.
The Banffite, along with the rest of the national team, is back again in Arosa Wednesday (Dec. 16) at 10:45 a.m. mountain time.
Zach Belczyk kicked off the FIS Ski Cross World Cup season with a bang, and a personal best under the lights in Arosa finishing in 8th spot 👊❗️He was joined in the small finals by last year's FIS Ski Cross World Cup in Nakiska winner Reece Howden who finished the day in 5th. pic.twitter.com/cDfKFFuWsX
— Alpine Canada Alpin (@Alpine_Canada) December 15, 2020
Canmore’s Kris Mahler, who one year ago won his first world cup race, finished 51st in the season opener.
The Canuck took to social media after the event reminding everyone that there's only the next one.
“Well, you win some and you lose some and today didn’t win one,” Mahler said in an Instagram story following the race.
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