The British Alpine Junior Team athletes training in Chile have got their seasons off to a great start, with some fantastic results.

Personal bests galore
The British Alpine Juniors are off in La Parva, Chile, with the Team Evolution Programme.

British Junior Team athletes Max Baggio, Max Moss, Darcie Mead & 2010 Team GB Youth Olympic athlete Sam Clissold, who all train and study at the Team Evolution Academy in St Johann, Austria, competed in their first races of the season over the last week.

The troop took part in the races around the Valle Nevado, La Parva & El Colorado region, including the opening leg of the South American Cup.

Across the series of 5 races, including 2 slaloms and 2 giant slaloms, each of the group achieved personal best results reflecting their personal development during the month long training camp.

Team Evolution Junior Coach, Paul Telling, said: "Our main pre season focus for this J1 Group has been to develop their personal understanding of a good basic position across the GS and SG disciplines.

“We are fortunate to have scheduled plenty of on snow training days between the end of April and the start of December, when we reach our first major target of the Youth Olympic Time Trials, and so have been in no rush to cram in gates at this stage of the programme.

“Over the last 20 days in Chile, and the previous camp in Austria, we have made huge strides in the technical free skiing of all of the J1 athletes, and I'm really happy with the position we're now in. Both Sam Clissold & Darcie Mead have made huge corrections to how they load and control the ski, and are reaping the rewards in maintaining stability and speed throughout their runs."

Training with the stars
In addition to the top results scored in their opening FIS races, the four Junior Team athletes, along with two of their Children's Team mates, have had the advantages of training SG and GS alongside numerous World Cup stars from Austria, Slovenia, France, Canada & Germany, plus their British Senior Team-mates Ed Drake, Dougie Crawford & TJ Baldwin.

With near perfect conditions available on a daily basis in La Parva, and multiple slopes to train on, the team’s progress has been constant over the last few weeks and is certain to stand each of the athletes in good stead for the start of the European winter.

As British Junior Team athlete Max Moss explained: "This preseason camp in Chile has been a great training experience, with excellent facilities and conditions for training all disciplines. We've been mainly training Super G because the opportunities here are unique to anything we can get in Europe for both gates and free skiing. It's been brilliant as we've clocked plenty of miles on our speed skis, and some good mileage on GS skis as well.

“My first GS race went well - I handled the conditions smoothly and skied confidently, and if it hadn't been for a minor slip in the first run, I could have scored a really decent result. We've also had the opportunity to forerun the South American Cup Super G races, where my time was equivalent to a 75 point score, which I am psyched about and has boosted my confidence for future Junior Super G races. All in all this camp has been hugely successful for me, not only scoring my first FIS points but making big steps in improving my technique in all disciplines, especially in speed.''

You can check out photos and video of the British Team athletes, along with their other Team Evolution team mates at the Team Evolution Blog .