We have had the warmest winter of the century, but against all odds, excellent results were achieved at NIVELCO Ski Team.
Noa Szőllős can finally racing in the international field in her first year as an U14 competitor. Although she is among the youngest, she obtained great results in tournaments and finished in the top ten almost every race.
The first international FIS junior competition Trofeu Borrufa took place in Andorra at the end of January with the best skiers of more than thirty countries. The special thing on this event is that two speed races were held. Noa finished in 8th place with great racing and in second place among the 2003-born competitors. She won the seven race long regional cup series in Austria for the fourth time. During the year she experienced how to compete between the older ones, now in much more difficult slopes. Her technical knowledge significantly improved and by the end of the year she competed confidently in the international field with her new equipment.
The first competition of the season closing was the international Kids Trophy held in Austria. Noa entered two competitions, where she could test her new ATOMIC equipment.
She was great in both races, in the ski cross race she finished in the sixth position, and in the GS she took tenth place. Then she reached eleventh place with great performance in the GS in the Italian Trofeo Pinocchio race, one of the most prestigious international contest of the season. This is the best international Hungarian result so far in this prestigious competition!
The hard training and competition in the South America have taken well-deserved results for the junior competitors of NIVELCO Ski Team. It was the highlight of the season when the Hungarian Championships adult GS race was won in double with hundreds of seconds equal time! They both returned home with two-two championship titles. The Junior World Ski Championship this year held in Sochi, the exotic ski slopes of the Russian Rosa Khutor. Unfortunately it has been memorable because of the great warmth and tropical rains.
Both boys managed to finish in the first half of the competitors, meeting the previous expectations. Barnabás could stand in the third place of the podium among the best U18 riders.
The world championship was followed by a longer spring tournament series. Barnabás and Benjámin went neck and neck in improving their FIS points and repeatedly stand on the podium.
Closing the season they’re tested themselves in speed races too, so they attended the first downhill race of their lives in the Austrian championship with several world cup racers. Benjámin was better in the training session; he finished at 42th while Barnabás took the 45th place among the 58 mostly Austrian competitors.
Benjámin finished at 35th place at his first DH race which brought him a huge success. His dreams come true by reaching of the Olympic quota worth 80 points. With his 64.89 points results he achieved the best Hungarian man results. After a great part-time the bend of Barnabás’s ski came loose in a strong corner and he fell out of the race, but he could improve in the next race right after where he acquired the outstanding 32th result. So he could sign up to the downhill racers with 94.44 points. The next day programs were SG and Alpine Combined sessions where Barnabás could further increase his lead. He achieved in 34th place in SG, and with an excellent slalom result he finished in the 23th. With the achieved 77.01 score he signed up to the Alpine Combined ranking. Benjámin finished at 37th at the SG race and thus greatly improved his FIS points.
All in all we can say that both boys performed very well in Austria. They demonstrated that they’re among the best in the Hungarian team not only in slalom and giant, but also in the speed disciplines.
