Slovene Hafner wins two races at Topolino event

Team Summit’s Conor McDonald finished ninth in both the giant slalom and slalom events to lead the U.S. team at the prestigious Trofeo Topolino races over the weekend in Italy. The event brings together the top J3 racers in the world from 48 nations.
Team Summit’s Conor McDonald finished ninth in both the giant slalom and slalom events to lead the U.S. team at the prestigious Trofeo Topolino races over the weekend in Italy. The event brings together the top J3 racers in the world from 48 nations.
    Slovenia’s Ula Hafner won the slalom and giant slalom races for the girls, while Italy’s Hubert Franzelin topped the boys giant slalom and Cristian Gruber of Germany won the boys slalom.
    Scott Snow of the Idaho’s Independence Racing Team in Idaho was 16th in slalom and Foreste Peterson from San Francisco and the Squaw Valley Ski Team was 17th in slalom and 20th in giant slalom.  
    Other U.S. team racers were Sam Macomber of the Franconia Ski Club in New Hampshire, Greta Byrne of the Ski and Snowboard Club Vail and Brie Whalen of the Okemo Mountain School.  Although all showed promise in the training project leading up to the races, each had some bad luck and did not finish the Topolino races, a common predicament for many of the 240 plus J3 age Topolino competitors.
     The U.S. team spent five days training and competing in northern Italy at the Panarotta ski area near Levico Terme, team members served as forerunners in the Italian Kinder II Championships.