Queenstown, New Zealand – Spokane, Wash.’s Will Brandenburg produced his second FIS Southern Cup podium finish in 24 hours Thursday during the race series’ second slalom at Coronet Peak ski area in New Zealand.

Brandenburg was third behind race winner Akira Sasaki of Japan and Wednesday’s winner, Lars Elton Myhre of Norway. Fellow Norwegian Annie Winquist won the women’s race.

“Will Brandenburg put in another solid performance and he has finished four consecutive race runs, which is a tremendous step forward actually for him,” said Mike Day, U.S. Ski Team Men’s Technical Head Coach. “[Will] Gregorak and [Colby] Granstrom also skied well today and the Europa Cup guys had a productive day as well.”

The men’s U.S. Ski Team’s Colby Granstrom (Lake Stevens, Wash.), Will Gregorak (Longmont, Ccolo.) and Seppi Stiegler (Jackson Hole, Wyo.) were also in the top 10. Giant slalom World Champion Ted Ligety (Park City, Utah) foreran the event, but did not compete in order to focus on training.

“For Ted [Ligety] it’s about continuing our normal training sessions. He’s hammered a lot of slalom during this block and did forerun the last few days of slalom just to get a feeling for a little better of a surface that what we’ve been training on, but he’s doing well,” said Day.

The Southern Cup now rotates to giant slalom with races Friday and Saturday. “We’ll be up on the hill tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. to train giant slalom, slalom and a little bit of super G before the actually giant slalom race. It’s going to be another busy day,” Day acknowledged.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
FIS Southern Cup
Coronet Peak, New Zealand – Aug. 1,8 2011

Men’s Slalom
1. Akira Sasaki, Japan, 1:29.32
2. Lars Elton Myhre, Norway, 1:29.32
2. Will Brandenburg, Spokane, WA, 1.29.43

Women’s Slalom
1. Annie Winquist, Norway, 1:37.83
2. Kristine Gjelsten Haugen, Norway, 1:38.90
3. Margrethe Chloe Fausa, Norway, 1:39.36