SnowsportGB Newsletter
Alpine
 She
has been bursting to keep the momentum going after three excellent
top 15 results at the season's curtain raiser in Lake Louise,
Canada, but Chemmy Alcott has been having an unscheduled few
days in England this week.
Lack of snow in Europe is the problem for all the athletes
at the moment. The decision on Val d'Isere's Premier Neige
world cup weekend has now been postponed until Saturday (tomorrow).
After a summer recuperating from surgery on the bone spurs
on her feetwhich meant a spell in a wheelchair while she could
not walk, and sixmonths away from skiing, Chemmy has bounced
back with two 13th's inthe first two downhill's of the season,
followed by an 11th on Sunday in the Super G.
The performance in Lake Louise is all the more remarkable
as she only started back on skis in October and had only had
a couple of days of downhill training before her first downhill
on Friday. She finished 1.67 seconds of the winning time set
by Germany's Maria Riesch. This was in spite of intermittent
flat light conditions which made the bumpy Olympic course
very testing.
The following day Chemmy had another new experience when
she finished 13th again. Lindsey Kildow scored a runaway win
by 1.33 seconds, but Chemmy, who raced second down the track,
spent the best part of 15 minutes on the top step of the podium.
"It was all a bit weird, because I did not quite know
what to do, but it was great. Next time I'll be a bit more
composed!" she grinned afterwards.
Despite the two 13th's Chemmy really made her own luck. After
the poor visibility on the Friday, Saturday's gusty headwinds
made it like the spin of a roulette wheel for some, and Alcott
suffered as much as anyone.
Her downhill results are the best since 2004 when she was
9th in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy and her 11th in Super G matches
her career best Super G result which she gained on the same
course three years ago.
"I really surpassed my expectations." admitted
Chemmy this week during a snatched moment of domestic home
life in England, "To be so consistent was a bit of a
surprise. It is tough for me now because I feel like the ball
has started rolling and I want to keep racing. My coach has
been asking where it is coming from and I don't know. Everything
really pointed to me having an average season at best, but
I do feel great on my skis. Being pain free just gives me
this huge appetite for it and I feel like I am really free
on my skis with no real pressure."
"Being home has been nice in a way. I am really like
two people and can just swap from Chemmy the racer to Chemmy
at home really easily."
The US and Canada were not so fruitful for Finlay Mickel
and Noel Baxter. Finlay has not managed to score points yet
at this very early stage in the season while Bode Miller gave
the Beaver Creek fans what they wanted, a third US Ski Team
victory in as many years. Finlay finished 34th; three tenths
of a second would have got him into the 30.
Still carefully managing his adductor strain Fin took the
opportunity to see renowned FASIC physio Sandi Lyall while
he was home in Edinburgh for three days and now feels he now
knows what he has to work on to support and manage the niggling
injury.
"I was disappointed not to come away with any points
and not to have made the start I wanted to. I had two objectives
there and really did not meet either of them, but I did some
good skiing in Lake Louise where the problems with the Atomic
skis did not help. In temperatures of MS28C the top Atomic
guys were just 6th and 10th. I was sixth quickest off the
steep but still lost eight tenths of a second to the finish,
over just two splits."
"In Beaver Creek I was just rattled. I had to deal with
Craig Branch blowing his knee, he was in my room and my head
was just not right to be wanting to attack."
"Now I just have to re-focus and think about the things
I want. How much I want it and am hungry for it, not backing
off but using the technical improvements I know that I made
in the summer. I do feel very motivated now and just can't
wait for Groden, Val Gardena."
"The adductor muscle has been a problem because it affects
the way I go into my tuck and it does not feel natural, but
having seen Sandi I feel more confident I can now take more
control of the situation and work on it."
Noel Baxter's first attempt at the new Super Combined may
not have brought the result he wanted but there were promising
signs. He finished 31st outright in the Downhill which left
him just 5/100ths off starting first down the slalom. In the
Super Combi slalom he was going well but missed a gate and
had to hike back into the course, finishing 28th overall.
In Sunday's Slalom he came out on the first run
"It was very difficult snow, and a lot of guys struggled.
Sometimes it was slick and icy, other bits were very grippy
and aggressive."
Among those who did not make it down the first run were Benni
Raich,Georgio Rocca, Markus Larsson and Bode Miller.
"Overall I am pretty disappointed, but I know that it
is do-able. If I had not made the mistake in the Slalom I
reckon that I could have made 12th to 15th so that is a bit
encouraging." Reported Noel this week from training in
Kuhtai, Austria before heading to Reiteralm for the second
Super Combination of the season - a Super G and Slalom event.
"I am right up for it, really looking forward to it.
There is only free skiing on the hill before and then inspection
and straight into it."
As always with the emotional roller-coaster that ski racing
can be there is good news and bad news on the injury front.
Lynn Sharp, who blew her knee badly while racing in the parallel
slalom at the British Land National Ski Championships in Meribel
in March, has won her long and hard battle back to fitness
and is now back on skis again.
Lynn got back on skis three weeks ago after a couple of weeks
of mornings on snow at X-scape in Glasgow. Since then she
has been free skiing in Hintertux, Kaprun and Kaunertal.
"It is probably going to be after Christmas now before
I can ski gates, but there has been no ill effects at all.
I get a little pain when it is cold, but it is just so good
to be back on skis."
Unfortunately that is the long and difficult road that Aaron
Tipping now faces. The promising Home Nations Development
squad athlete is certainly out for the season after a bad
crash in Stubai on 21st November during a speed camp. Aaron
had his fractured tibia and fibula operated on that evening
in Innsbruck. Metalwork inserted he flew home to begin his
recovery a couple of days later.
Snowboard
 Bad
weather prevented Dan Wakeham from securing his best ever
result in the FIS World Cup Half-Pipe. In the second world
cup of the season in Saas Fee, Switzerland Dan qualified for
the finals in third place. Unfortunately the event's final
was then cancelled due to severe weather.
In the Kaprun Europa Cup Snowboardcross event Zoë Gillings
showed the rest of the world she was back from injury and
once again the world will take notice when Zoë stands
in the start gate. Zoë had the fastest time in qualifying
by almost 2 seconds and then proceeded to make her way relatively
easily through two heats to reach the final. Similarly to
the Saas Fee Europa Cup Half-Pipe, this competition had a
strong field of World Cup level riders as it was the first
snowboardcross event this year. In the final, Zoe was boxed
in and finished 3rd -- still a very respectable start to the
season.
James Foster has not entered a Snowboardcross event for four
years and arrived in Kaprun with the intention of proving
that he can progress in this discipline. Narrowly missing
out on the finals by 0.4 seconds in the timed qualifying runs,
James finished 39th out of 130 riders which proved to be an
excellent re-introduction to Snowboardcross and gives him
the confidence to look forward to the rest of the season.
The snowboardcross team remain in Saas Fee until the World
Cup event on 10th December where we expect to see Zoe Gillings
going for gold.
Freestyle
The International Olympic Committee has decided to extend
the program of the Olympic Winter Games to include the ladies'
and men's ski cross as had been proposed by FIS following
the decision the 45th International Ski Congress in Vilamoura
(POR) in May.
Commeting on the decision FIS President Gian Franco Kasper
states:
"We are very pleased about the decision of the IOC to
include ski cross already in 2010,The growth of ski cross
has been phenomenal especially among the youngsters. Since
its introduction in the 2002/03 season, 31 nations have participated
in the ladies' and men's ski cross World Cup competitions
and the first FIS World Championships in ski cross at Ruka
(FIN) in 2005 were a great success. We are already looking
forward to the next FIS World Championships in ski cross to
be held in Madonna di Campiglio (ITA) in January 2007 and
Inawashiro (JPN) in 2009."
This is great news for leading British ski cross racer Emily
Sarsfield who is currently ranked 24th in the World and will
hope to be part of the British team going to Vancouver in
2010.
Nordic
 The
Spanish Pyrenees is the location for the February 2007 European
Youth (Winter) Olympic Festival, with up to 1200 athletes
aged 15-18 from over 40 European countries expected to compete.
The four skiing categories of biathlon, snowboarding, cross-country
skiing and alpine skiing will take place in two ski resorts
in the Valley of Aragon, Candanchu and Astu.
This will be the first time since 1999 that Britain will
have cross country skiers competing at the Olympic Festival.
More significantly it is also the first time that Britain
is sending a team rather than an individual skier.
Competition for the final places for the British Cross-Country
Ski team has been fierce. The current squad will be chasing
four places for boys and two for girls at a race series in
Poland in middle of December. All of the squad have been following
a tough training plan which has involved cycling, running
and plenty of roller skiing (for details on roller skiing
and all other aspects of cross-country skiing, visit www.ssenordic.org.uk),
with the average training time being 50 hours a month since
May.
The squad are inspired by the first results of the season
in the Nor Am Cup, Vernon, Canada, where Sarah Young and Alistair
Duncan finished the 10km classic pursuit for juniors 3.3%
(5th position) and 9.5% (14th position) behind the winners
respectively.
The British, Inter-Services and Army Nordic Championships
will be held at the German National Biathlon Centre of Ruhpolding
in Bavaria from the 24th January -- 8th February 2007. This
will be the 60th running of this event, and the 10th anniversary
of it being held in Ruhpolding, and is the premier event as
far as British athletes are concerned with 220 athletes competing.
The timetable for the main events is:
Saturday 27th January Men's 15 km/Ladies 10 km cross-country
classic race
Sunday 28th January Men's 10 km/Ladies 7.5 km cross-country
free technique race
Tuesday 30th January Men's 4 x 5 km/Ladies 4 x 5 km cross-country
relay
Thursday 1st February Men's 20 km/Ladies 12.5 km biathlon
Friday 2nd February Men's, Junior Men, Ladies "Meggitt
Super 16" Floodlit 1km knockout
Saturday 3rd February Men's 10 km/Ladies 7.5 km biathlon
sprint
Sunday 4th February Men's 12.5/Ladies 10 km biathlon mass
start
The British Championships are organised by the Army Winter
Sports Association and full details can be found on www.awsa.co.uk/pages/nordic.htm.
Details of Masters cross-country skiing can be obtained from
www.world-masters-XC-skiing.ch.
British Championships
Entry forms for The British Land Senior Ski Championships
are now available for download online, www.snowsportgb.com
and this year the entry fee can be made with credit card.
The Senior and Junior and Children Championships will be run
over a two week period without the traditional week's break
in between the two events. The junior races will follow on
from the senior races.
Other News
Susie Berry, has been named the new Chairman of Selectors
for the British Children's squad with immediate effect. Susie
takes over from Jim Hewitt, who remains Chief of Championship's
for the British Land Junior and Children's National Ski Championships.
Ross Green has been voted by UK FIS licence holders to remain
in the post of Athlete's representative to SnowsportGB. Ross
who is head coach at the British Ski Academy is a former Olympian
and British Ski Team member. 93% of the votes cast were in
favour of Ross standing for a second term.
The SnowsportGB on-line shop has been trading well since
the start of the new season and has recently added branded
ZAPTAG's to the shop's products. ZAPTAG is an innovative and
a potentially life saving product. The concept is a simple
one: essential emergency medical information such as blood
group, drug allergies, vaccinations, next of kin contacts
and personal medical records held securely on a robust USB
drive and are available to medical personnel in an emergency
Snowsport Scotland have announced a new chairman following
the body's AGM in November. Craig McKillop, former president
of Bearsden Ski Club will replace Paul Hancock.
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