Queenstown, New Zealand – New Zealand ski racer Ben Griffin stormed into second place, and the country’s best world ranking position for twenty years, in day one of the Giant Slalom Air New Zealand Japanese FIS Southern Cup race held at Coronet Peak ski area on Monday.nGriffin fended off competition from American ski racers Warner Nickerson and David Chodounsky – who came third and fourth respectively – to bring home second place. Will Gregorak of the U.S. won first place. The second Kiwi home was Queenstown’s Tim Cafe, who finished in 19th place.

The podium spot is a record success for Griffin, vastly improving his FIS world ranking and propelling him into the top 125 alpine ski racers in the world.

“I’m very stoked with today’s result,” said Griffin. “I made a few mistakes up the top of the run but I carried a lot of speed into the bottom. I’ve been skiing really well; I always get a huge boost when we’re working alongside U.S. and other top racers, we always up our game.”

Snowsports New Zealand Alpine Manager James Lazor said Griffin skied fantastically today.

“This result plus his Canadian Giant Slalom earlier in the season will bring down his FIS Giant Slalom points into the teens. This lowering of points is a testament to his focus on his goals and his determination with training,” he said.

Head of Race Richard Murphy said Griffin’s coup marked a new best in Kiwi world-ranking history since Simon Wi Rutene achieved a similar result in 1990.

“From Coronet Peak’s point of view we’re delighted to see a Kiwi achieve such a great result – we’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” he said. “The training that’s going on here is really paying off for New Zealand’s alpine ski racers.

“Race conditions were awesome today. We’ve had a hard track underneath and it’s been a spectacular bluebird day,” Murphy added. He said conditions were looking fantastic for Tuesday’s final event in the series.

“It all steps up to another level tomorrow with the final giant slalom races bringing the five-day event to a huge climax. We’ve got the top U.S. Men’s technical and speed teams as well as the Russian and German Women’s technical teams.”

In the women’s giant slalom race, also held Monday at Coronet Peak, Christina Geiger (GER) won first place, while Fanny Chmelar (GER) came second and Elena Prosteva (RUS) took third. First New Zealander home was Sarah Jarvis with a creditable 6th placing.