BETHANY Widdup had to fight through the pain at the Delancey British National Alpine Ski Championships but the teenager concedes she fell some way short of her expectations in the Giant Slalom.

The speed events gave way to the technical disciplines in Tignes on Thursday, after a start to the Championships that has seen some of Great Britain’s brightest talents prosper.

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Widdup, of Colne, is one such budding Brit and she was appearing for the first time this week after deciding to give both the Super-G and Downhill races a miss.

She competes again today in the slalom where she will be hoping to improve on her first showing.

In tricky conditions – which saw many British athletes crash out – Widdup abandoned her second run and struggled to shake off a niggling wrist injury.

But she believes a little more adventure would have ultimately paid off.

“It was not a good day, I didn’t ski the first run very well and I took the wrong line over the roll,” she said.

“I was a little cautious and a lot of people weren’t finishing the course, but it was too cautious – I was far too slow in the end.

“I hurt my wrist earlier in the week as well, I hit it on the base of a gate.

“I’m hopefully going to start the Slalom (on Friday) but I don’t know whether it will hurt hitting the gates or not, we’ll see.”

Pendle star Dave Ryding goes for gold today in the slalom in Tignes where he will be overwhelming favourite to claim victory having had a stellar season on the World Cup circuit.

Ryding, who has twice competed in the Winter Olympics, has had five top 30 finishes on the world stage this season.

And the 28-year-old, who learnt to ski in Pendle, believes East Lancashire can provide the perfect training ground to the next generation of skiers after it was revealed that more than 40,000 new people had taken up at least one snow sport taster or coaching session in 2014 on the back of the Sochi Olympics, where Ryding was 17th.

And Olympian Dave Ryding, who is set to hit the slopes on Friday, believes the North West is the perfect area to clip on skis for the first time.

“I started on a dry slope called Pendle, which is about 40 minutes from where I live,” said Ryding.

“Unfortunately I don’t get to go there much now because I’m so busy with the training all summer, but it’s definitely a good area to learn your trade in.

“There’s also the Chill Factore (in Manchester) if you want, which wasn’t there when I was younger so there’s even more opportunities now.

“I always hoped I’d be good at skiing, but looking back I was so naïve. But if you keep plugging away, you can ski professionally or for fun from wherever you live.”