Farrell Wins Silver At Speedmasters Speed Skiing Event

Jan Farrell, born in Lancaster in 1983, achieved the silver medal at the SpeedMasters in Vars (France). This invitation-only event only the best racers in the world are there to try and break the World Record. His title of overall World Cup SDH champion earned him his qualification.

The Atomic skier said “It’s been incredible fun, an indescribable experience filled with adrenaline; the perfect end to the season." Please find photos of the event attached to this press release.

Farrell, who currently lives in Madrid and mainly trains in Austria and Andorra, won the overall World Cup title this season after winning 4 of the 7 races, reaching this final event of the season as one of the clear favourites. His 210.035km/h (130.510mph) earned him a provisional lead, with one racer left to go down. At that point he was the leader of the race and new track record holder. This lasted for 2 long minutes, until swiss Gregory Meichtry came down and broke the previous WR (210.770km/h, standing since 2006 in Les Arcs) with a speed of 211.025km/h.

Despite not beating the record and finishing 2nd, he said “the run was extremely bumpy at the top, but as soon as we passed the top third, I was able to glide down smoothly, speeding up to 130mph. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had on a pair of skis, 20 seconds of pure acceleration (we reached 100mph in the first 5!). The sensation of power and stability was fantastic, I can’t believe how stable the skis felt, they behaved magnificently well at 210km/h”. Jan skis on regular Atomic 218cm skis, designed for downhill races that rarely reach over 140km/h. “My skis were in optimum condition thanks to SkiClinic Lienz and Atomic."

With mixed feeling due to having the victory and World Record so close, Jan gives a positive balance to this end of the season “I know the speed is there and that I’m capable of breaking the record next year, I didn’t have a strong run. I could have easily been 2-3km/h faster without changing my setup if I’d managed to maintain a lower tuck at the bottom third of the track” “It’s been the perfect ending to a hard and stressful season. The 85 days on snow have paid off, together with the gym work with 250 days of strength, aerobic and balance training. The 36 flights, 10000 miles driven, and the too many days away from home have been worthwhile. It’s been simply a perfect season."

The World Record is 252.454km/h, set by Italian Simone Origone in Vars, the day after Jan’s record.

You can follow Jan on Twitter: @JanFarrell or Facebook: www.facebook.com/farrelling