Gourley crowned World Champion
Published Sun 29 Jan 2017
Years of hard work and determination have paid off for Para-Alpine skier Mitch Gourley, with the 25-year-old taking top honours in the Super Combined at the 2017 World Championships in Tarvisio, Italy.
Competing at his fifth World Championships, Gourley got off to a strong start in the Downhill where he placed fourth. He then went on to finish eighth in the Super-G before leaving his competition behind to win the Super Combined.
Gourley clocked 1:07.35 in the first Super-G component of the race, placing him sixth in a highly competitive field of 25 athletes. He followed this with the fastest slalom run of all competitors – 44.16 seconds – to rocket up the standings and take the gold.
The standing ski athlete who hails from Barwon Heads in Victoria, has been competing since 2002. Highlighting his career has been the 2010 and 2014 Paralympic Winter Games as well as multiple World Cup medals – and now he can proudly add World Champion to his accolades.
The win will give Gourley great confidence ahead of his more favoured events, Slalom and Giant Slalom, which are still to come in the competition.
Competition continues with Giant Slalom on 30 January and Slalom on the final day 31 January.
More details to come soon.........
The events will be streamed live at Paralympic.org.
Live results will also be available at www.tarvisio2017.com
See also Gourley elected as Athlete Representative for alpine skiers