Torquay teen wins US national skiing title

A CHAMPION snow skier has emerged from Australia’s surf capital.

Torquay teenager Alana Hunt is celebrating after winning the US national title for under-13 girls in freestyle skiing in Colorado in April.

She won the overall title after finishing top 10 in all four events at Copper Mountain.

Alana placed third in the half-pipe, fifth in ski cross, eighth in slopestyle and eighth in rail jam.

“It was like a dream come true to win the overall title,” she said.

“It makes me realise how much I improved throughout my season in Colorado. I couldn’t have done it without my coaches and family.”

The half-pipe involves doing tricks in a big, snow-covered 22-foot (6.7m) tall half-pipe and ski cross is a race on a banked course with heats of four skiers.

Slopestyle involves tricks on big jumps and rail jam involves jumping on rails and pipes and sliding along them to perform tricks which are marked by judges.

Alana confronted her fears in the half-pipe.

“Earlier in the year, I broke my thumb training in the half-pipe so it was difficult for me to regain my confidence in time for the finals,” she said.

“But I actually ended up getting my best result in the half-pipe, which was amazing.”

The 12-year-old started skiing when she was three, with her parents taking her to Mount Hotham; and it wasn’t long before they were skiing at Mount Buller every winter.

“The instructors at Mount Buller helped me with my technique and I started to do well in competitions which just made me want to ski even more,” she said.

“We eventually ended up moving up to Mount Buller for each snow season before coming back to Torquay for the rest of the year.

“This let me train on snow in the week but meant I had to balance it with home schooling over winter as well.”

While she had been to Colorado before for race training, this was the first time she had entered competitions and spent a full season.

Alana said she was enjoying being back at Torquay Coast Primary School, and praised the school for its support.