Harpenden skier Max Baggio believes finally striking gold at the Delancey British National Alpine Ski Championships will set him up perfectly for the rest of the event.

The world-class ski resort of Tignes in France is currently playing host to the Delancey British National Alpine Ski Championships, which run until April 1.

The junior and U18 downhill events were contested on Wednesday morning and Baggio’s time of 1:15.41 minutes saw him lift the trophy in the former, ahead of Oliver Davies and Paul Henderson.

Before the junior downhill, the 20-year-old had won a silver medal in each event he had entered – the senior downhill, senior super-G and junior super-G – but was ecstatic to finally reach the top step of the podium.

“It’s a good feeling – I’m happy to get the win,” said Baggio. “I was happy with the top section of my run, I came to the Rossignol jump and then there was a compression and I got a bit low and late there but apart from that I was happy with it.

“When I crossed the finish line I thought my time was probably good enough to win although there is always a chance the other guys could have caught me.

“I’m happy with how I’ve done in all the speed events this week. I was happy with my downhill run on Tuesday even though it was only second place – it was solid.”

The Championships are the biggest event of the year for the British ski racing world and Delancey are the principal sponsor for the sixth year running.

The speed events are now finished in the French Alps with attention turning to the technical events – the slalom and giant slalom – in the coming days.

Despite competing against something of a star-studded line-up, Baggio is hopeful of adding more medals to his haul but is anticipating a hard-fought competition.

“I’m excited for the tech races now and they should be good fun,” added Baggio. “That’s mostly what I train for throughout the season, so it should be cool to race against the other guys.

“Charlie [Raposo] is a really good GS skier and slalom as well, so it will probably be tight and should be a really good competition. It should be good fun and I will enjoy it.”

To follow the progress of the Delancey British Alpine Ski Team visit www.teambss.org.uk or follow @teambss on Twitter. As Principal Sponsor of British Ski and Snowboard, Delancey is proud to be able to provide British athletes with the support they require to win World Cup and Winter Olympic medals. For more information visit www.delancey.com