Seven
S.A.S.A athletes represented the club at the B.A.R.S.C championships in
With
the junior races starting on the Sunday morning with the slalom, the other
racers took advantage of slalom training with S.A.S.A's,
ESF Europa cup race coach, Nicholas Flage.
The
junior slalom started on time and Aaron received a good bib draw of No 20.
Having completed his first run Aaron was in 17th position overall. For the
second run the weather closed in and it was pot luck if the racer had good
visibility or not. With the weather now very poor Aaron made a fantastic second
run and hauled himself up the leader board to finish a brilliant 13th place
overall.
In
the afternoon the racers switched to giant slalom training on the now empty stade with Nicholas. All the racers worked hard at this
training session and Nicholas commented on how dedicated and what a credit to
the club they where.
Monday
morning saw a change in the weather, very cold, but sunny. The stade piste was in superb
condition and every one was expecting a great junior giant slalom race. Aaron
received another good bib draw and was eager to put weeks of hard training to
the test. After a fast first run, including a small mistake, Aaron was in 16th
position. The second run started in normal FIS rules, top 30 reversed. Aaron
gave his second run everything he had, producing a great time which pushed him
up the leader board and finished 10th overall; fantastic.
The
children trained slalom with Nicholas in the morning and then changed to super
g skis for the afternoon session, practicing flat speed and speed turns. New
Year was "seen in" asleep for all the SASA members as the junior
super g was to start early in the morning, followed by the children’s super g.
New
Years day appeared with great weather conditions for both of the super g races.
Ross Green, ex GB racer, made the junior course look easy as the fore runner,
but believe me it was far from easy using the entire length of the Olympic stade a very difficult super g had been set. Aaron's bib
draw was not so good for this race, but true to his run of good form Aaron
powered to an impressive 12th position overall.
With
the junior super g over the course was reset from the slightly lower start
point ready for the children. This year saw the introduction of the new rules affecting
the children 2 racers within super g. Because of these rules only 3 of our
racers were competing in this speed event. Children 1 and 2 were all mixed
together and the bib draw did not favour our racers as the start list was over
100 entrants. Giacomo was up first and made a good safe run and finished in a
great 59th position overall. Hobie was the next from SASA to go down the icy
rutted course. With a great top section Hobie came through the finish line to
end up 47th overall. Josh left the start gate with lots of confidence and
having seen Hobie's line on the top section, he had the best line of the 3 of them. However he
caught an edge lower down which was enough to throw him out of the course.
Fortunately he was uninjured apart from a little dented pride.
Wednesday
was giant slalom day for the children and a very technical course was set for
both runs. The first run saw Giacomo ski out leaving him with a dnf overall. In
the second run Josh had a bad crash causing him to be a dnf overall. Phil
managed to put two runs together and finished in a creditable 90th overall.
Thomas had two solid runs which being fairly new to giant slalom was a great
finish of 85th overall. James had a cautious first run but a fast second run
and came in 63rd overall. Hobie managed a great first run but with a mistake on
his second run, pushed him down the order but still finished 49th overall.
Slalom
day, and the wind was blowing. With the start of the boy's race being right on
the exposed bend and at the top of the steep it was always going to be tough.
Josh suffering a swollen thumb from the previous giant slalom crash did not
start the slalom. Giacomo and Hobie put in fantastic first run times and were
right up amongst the leaders. Phil and James skied out in the first run causing
them to be dnf's overall. Thomas once again had two
good runs to put him into 53rd place overall. Hobie's
second run was meet with a huge gust of wind at the second gate which blew him
over and across the stade, making him having to hike
back to the course and continue onwards and finish in 45th place overall.
Giacomo found the power to stay upright in the wind and produce a great second
run giving him a fantastic overall 15th position. Less than half the starting
field managed to finish both runs in the slalom which is a great credit to
those who finished.
All
seven boys performed very well all week at the championships and should carry
their positive attitude forward to the schoolboys at the end of Jan.
Thanks
must go to Big Nige, John Amos and Fabrizio for
providing superb race support on behalf of the club and for working well in
coaching alongside Nicholas Flage.