RESULTS: Jess Blewitt and Amaury Pierron Win Semi-Finals in Val di Sole

With barely a couple of hours to catch their breath after their qualifying runs, the elite men and women lined up in the start hut for the second time today, this time with more World Cup points and a place in tomorrow's finals on the line. Jess Blewitt signed her first semi-final win with a convincing 3-second margin over fastest qualifier Myriam Nicole in the women's category. Vali Höll improved on her qualifying performance but would probably say that she was looking for more here. Nina and Camille had issues in their runs, but Nina should be protected for finals so we'll see her again tomorrow. On the men's side, the performance of the day goes to comeback kid Amaury Pierron who put a second into everybody else, after Troy had obliterated the previous leaders by over 4 seconds just moments before. Finn was once again fastest at splits two and three, just like in qualifying earlier, but he couldn't match Amaury in the last part of the track. Series leader and qualifying winner Loic Bruni had an issue already before the 2nd split and ended up some ways down the rankings here, and Dak Norton will be thankful for his protected status as he failed to crack the top-30. As for the Cinderella story of the day, how about Stefano Introzzi doing the host nation proud, taking his #91 plate all the way into the finals with an 11th place finish today and a slot in the live broadcast as his reward tomorrow.

The forecast for tomorrow looks a whole lot less fun than today, which may well shake things up on a track that is already running very rough - stay tuned for more from Italy!