Prince George ski cross racer Tiana Gairns is going to the World Cup finals.
The 22-year-old Prince George Alpine Ski Team alumni climbed the season standings into 14th place overall after she matched her best solo result of the season Saturday in Sunny Valley, Russia. Gairns won the women’s small final and placed fifth overall to increase her World Cup points total to 188.
Her late-season surge competing against the best in the world was enough to qualify Gairns for the World Cup final this Sunday in Veysonnaz, Switzerland.
Only the top-16 women and top-32 men are invited to compete in the one-day event, the final stop on the World Cup ski cross tour.
Gairns matched her fifth-place solo result she posted Jan. 23 in Idre Fjall, Sweden. She and Reece Howden of Cultus Lake. B.C., combined for a fourth-place finish in the team event Feb. 28 in Bakuriani, Georgia. She missed several races this season, most recently with a concussion in December, after joining the circuit late in the fall coming off knee surgery
Several of Gairns’ national teammates also made the cut for the World Cup final, including Marielle Thompson of Whistler, who has 475 points and ranks second in the standing to Crystal Globe winner Fanny Smith of Switzerland.
Courtney Hoffos of Windermere (sixth place, 382 points) and Zoe Chore of Cranbrook (10th place, 245 points) also cracked the top-16.
Howden, who won the race Saturday in Sunny Valley to solidify his Crystal Globe season championship, leads the World Cup standings with 662 points. Also qualified for Veysonnaz are Chris Del Bosco of Montreal (25th place, 121 points), Brady Leman od Calgary (27th place, 111 points) and Zach Belczyk of Banff, Alta., (30th, 75 points).
