SOLIHULL skiier Scott Johns this week heads out to Bormio, Italy, in the search of further glory at the English Alpine Skiing Championships.
The 23rd edition of the competition in the Valtellina valley in the Lombardy region of Northern Italy, will take place between the 17th and 22nd February, and the 15-year old will hope the tournament will be a building block on last year’s showing.
Johns finished in the top three of his age category 12 months ago, and is full of confidence heading back to the Italian slopes.
“This is going to be my eighth or ninth year competing in Bormio. It’s normally the main competition I look for because every single athlete is there,” he said.
“It’s in the middle of the season too, so everyone has hit form and the snow is probably at its best condition in February.
The Solihull skiier has been competing since the mini’s tournament and has appeared in the top five of the event on several occasions.
He targets similar success this time out.
“Last year was really positive, I came third in my year of birth overall across the three events. I came eighth in the giant slalom, which was my best result in last year’s Championships.
“I would like to finish in the top ten in slalom, in the giant slalom I want to finish in the top five and the same in the Super-G.
“I’ve not skied too much on snow this year because I’ve got my GCSEs so I’ve had to limit the amount of school I’ve been missing.”
Skiing is a sport that runs in the Johns family, with Scott’s elder brother – Owen – taking to the slopes and introducing his sibling to the sport.
It has ignited a competitive rivalry within the family that has pushed the brothers on, 17-year old Owen being a keen ski-crosser, whilst Scott is aiming to appear at World Cup’s and the Olympic Games.
“I started skiing when I was three years old and it was just really to start skiing leisurely.
“But my brother Owen started to race so I started out on racing when I was five years old. It just spiralled from there and I’ve loved it ever since.
“We are really competitive, and we still race against each other because I do some ski-cross too.
“We’ve always had that between us and wanted to better each other.”
