Drake and Crawford set for World Cup debuts in Wengen

BRITISH hopefuls Ed Drake and Dougie Crawford will make their World Cup debuts at Wengen this weekend.

_{FRESH FACES: Ed Drake (right) and Dougie Crawford (second from right) get ready for World Cup debuts}

Scotland's Crawford and Ed Drake of London will compete in the Super Combined and Downhill events respectively on Wengen's infamous slope - The Lauberhorn.

Drake, 23, the reigning overall British Men's skiing champion, improved his world ranking last year by 457 places to 147th and his Super G ranking by 510 places to 96th.

He has started the current season strongly, finishing 11th at a Europa Cup competition at Reiteralm in Austria last month.

"I can't wait to get my World Cup career underway," said Drake. "It's a great experience for me in the lead up to the World Championships. 

"We were here in Wengen last week competing in the Europa Cup competition which has given us experience on the middle part of the course. 

"This is a huge advantage as it takes in the jump and the ‘S' bends which are some of the most difficult sections of the course".

"The downhill in Wengen is the longest in the circuit, and the course will be a minute longer than what we were racing last week which means I'm going to have to pace myself.

"This is one of the classic events of the Tour and a race I've been looking forward to since the start of my career."

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Crawford, 21, started last season with a 14th place in a Super G in Chile, and followed that up with several top ten finishes.

"I'm very excited about the weekend but even more so as the race is in Wengen, one of the classic stops on the Tour," added Crawford. 

"There are always loads of fans, TV and noise which make it a totally different experience to Europa Cup and FIS races.

"The race is perfect preparation for me ahead of both the World Championships and the Olympic Games. The experience we gained on the track last week is a massive advantage. 

"It gives me additional confidence going into the race knowing I've skied the course before.

"Training has been going really well.  I've made some technical changes to my skiing this year which are really starting to pay off, I'm a lot more confident this year."

GERARD MEAGHER