NOWRA-born Melissa Perrine and her sighted guide Bobbi Kelly are Australia’s newest world champions, after the pair claimed the gold medal at the World Para Alpine Skiing Championships, in the Women Super Combined division.
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Perrine and Kelly cleaned up at the World Championships, held in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, picking up four medals from four starts including gold, two silver and a bronze.
The World Championships medal haul marks an outstanding 12 months for Perrine, who last year took home two bronze medals at the 2018 PyeongChang Paralympic Winter Games.
Heavy snowfall delayed competition for two days at Sella Nevea, meaning Perrine and Kelly had two finals to contend in the one day.
While the pressure was on, Perrine and Kelly showed how their new partnership is prospering taking silver in the Women’s Super-G and following that up with gold in the Women's Super Combine.
“We backed up out of the Super-G run and put it together for the slalom and managed to come away with first place, so pretty happy,” Perrine said after being crowned the world champion.
Following the silver earlier in the day, Perrine said her and Kelly knew what they needed to focus on heading into the final event.
“Solid skiing – we know we can put together a solid slalom performance so we stripped it back to basics, focused on our communications, our connection and the fact that we know we can ski well together,” she said.
“Going four from four is pretty great, it cements our partnership and we’re looking forward to the rest of the World Cup season.”
The competition wrapped up the 2019 World Para Alpine Skiing Championships, with Perrine and Kelly now turning their focus to the World Cup circuit.
