Queenstown, New Zealand – Will Brandenburg, of Spokane, Wash., opened the 2012 FIS Alpine ski racing season Wednesday with a podium in a Southern Cup slalom held in New Zealand. Brandenburg tied for second with Canadian David Donaldson as Norwegian Lars Elton Myhre won the men’s race.

“Anytime Will [Brandenburg] leaves the start, he’s looking to win, but it was a good thing to build off,” said U.S. Ski Team Men’s Technical Head Coach, Mike Day.

Will Gregorak, of Longmont, Colo., was fourth, just .02 seconds off the podium in the first of four races to be held at Coronet Peak, where the U.S. Ski Team has been training since early August. The race series had been threatened by a heavy snowstorm, which produced record snows earlier in the week, but the storm cleared out in time to hold the race under overcast skies.

“The race crew here at Coronet did a great job pushing off 70-some centimeters of snow for a successful race. It was a tremendous effort,” said Day, who added that he was pleased with the results of his team’s training camp. “It’s been a successful camp. We had a great stretch of weather before this big storm. We had a bunch of hills that were injected and had a really good training block up until the front end of this storm. We’ve been mixing it up with some GS and pretty heavy volume in slalom, which brought us right into this race.”

Many U.S. Ski Team men skipped Wednesday’s slalom at Coronet Peak. “We didn’t have a bunch of guys racing today because we’re obviously down here to train at this point,” Day explained. “We’re looking at these races as a training opportunity more than anything else. This camp is a continuation of our fundamental progression as we slowly build toward [the World Cup opener in] Soelden. We still have quite a bit of preparation coming up.”

It was a Norwegian atop the women’s podium as well, as Lotte Smiseth Sejersted crossed the finish line 0.11 seconds ahead of Germany’s Susanne Riesch, sister of 2011 World Cup overall champion Maria Riesch. Fellow German ski racer Lena Duerr finished third.

A second Southern Cup slalom is scheduled for Thursday. The Audi FIS Alpine World Cup opens Oct. 22-23 in Soelden, Austria.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
FIS Southern Cup
Coronet Peak, New Zealand – Aug. 17, 2011

Men’s Slalom
1. Lars Elton Myhre, Norway, 1:30.54
2. David Donaldson, Canada, 1:30.69
2. Will Brandenburg, Spokane, WA, 1:30.69
4. Will Gregorak, Longmont, CO, 1:30.71

Women’s Slalom
1. Lotte Smiseth Sejersted, Norway, 1:39.29
2. Susanne Riesch, Germany, 1:39.40
3. Lena Duerr, Germany, 1:39.47