Top ten for young Alpine skiers

Zanna Farrell and Liam Michael have rounded out their Asian Winter Games campaigns with top ten finishes in their respective slalom events in Sapporo.

Farrell backed up her fifth place finish in the giant slalom on Thursday by claiming eighth, while Michael was ninth after a seventh place result in his earlier event.

After clocking 54.08 in her first run, conditions on the course worsened with Farrell clocking 59.19 to be just over 11 seconds back from gold medallist Emi Hasegawa of Japan. Asa Ando of Japan and Young-seo Kang of Korea rounded out the women’s podium.

"The conditions did make it tough [on the second run], but I think it was more me - you can't blame the hill," Farrell said on reflection.

"I didn’t ski amazingly today, but I was pretty happy overall," she said.

Michael ranked ninth in both his first (50.62) and second (54.17) runs to finish just under eight seconds behind Korea’s Dong-hyun Jung with his teammate Hyeon-tae Kim winning silver and Hideyuki Narita of Japan taking home bronze.

Although his first run didn't quite go to plan, Michael was please with his ability to turn it around and produce a strong second run.

"In the first run I came down and I knew I had made some mistakes," Michael said.

"My coach and I, we reviewed after my first run and worked out some tactics for the second run to go over, and basically on the second run I executed them on a different course that was more suited to me.

"I executed what I needed too and my second run was a lot better - a lot faster - which felt good."

Michael said his entire Asain Winter Games experience has been an incredible opportunity.

"I’m pretty happy to put down a good run on the highest event stage of my career," he said.

"I found this event a big one, probably the biggest event I've been to to date."

Farrell agreed: "Overall it’s been extraordinary, amazing to be here and amazing to be here with such a good team.

"Being in Japan is pretty cool, as well competing alongisde World Cup athletes is amazing. It’s definitely showed me another world, and it’s really sparked something in me."

Article courtesy of olympics.com.au