The British Land National Ski Championships. Meribel, France.
Mickel and Sharp win opening downhills.
Top seeds Finlay Mickel (28, Edinburgh/The British Land
Alpine Ski Team) and Lynn Sharp (20, Glasgow/The British Land
Alpine Ski Team) made their best possible start to The British
Land National Ski Championships today in Meribel, France when
they won the opening downhills.
In the face of a poor weather forecast for Tuesday it was
decided to run the British Junior Downhill first and if the
main British Open Senior Downhill cannot be completed as scheduled
tomorrow, then today's results will stand for the main British
Downhill titles.
So Mickel and Sharp may have to wait until early morning
to wait and see whether they have to race again to be sure
of their titles. For Sharp, the 2004 overall British Women's
Champion, her victory today by six tenths of a second suggests
she has a little in hand over her nearest rival, Katrina Head
(21, Oxford/The British Development Team).
By contrast Finlay Mickel, who is looking for his fourth
consecutive British Men's Downhill title and is the reigning
overall British Men's Champion, was pushed a little closer
today by his friend and rival Roger Cruickshank (23, Banchory/The
British Land Alpine Ski Team).
Cruickshank, who announced his retirement from international
racing at the Olympics, finished just one tenth of a second
behind Mickel.
"It was a little closer than I expected but it is good
that Roger was pushing me so hard. It was tough because underneath
it was quite soft and so if you pushed too hard in the wrong
places it was easy to break the surface and slow, or if you
changed direction too quickly it was easy to end up in the
nets, so it was a question of how much you were prepared to
risk. You don't want to get injured this late in the season
at the British Championships certainly." Said Mickel.
The two titles which were definitely settled today were the
British Junior downhill championships. Skiing to third place
Emma Norton (16, Grantown on Spey/Scottish Alpine Team) lifted
the Junior Downhill title skiing 1.14 seconds slower than
Sharp.
Winner of the Junior Men's title was Dan Berry (19, London).
Berry skied 1 minute 04.47 seconds to Mickel's winning 1 minute
02.17 seconds.
Berry had never done a ski race on snow until he moved to
Calgary, Canada at the age of 12 as a promising dry slopes
racer. Holder of dual nationality with English parents he
joined the local Calgary ski club but a year ago with a promising
set of international FIS points and among the top 15 juniors
for his age in Canada, he elected to return to join the British
Development team. Even after three months off with a knee
injury he was asked to join the British Land Alpine Team in
January and has continued to score strongly across the disciplines.
This is his first ever British championships. Slalom is his
strongest discipline but his other disciplines are also improving.
"I have always felt British and felt almost guilty skiing
in Canada, so I decided to change and try and get involved
as heavily as I could with the British system. I have really
enjoyed and benefited from the programme. My dream is to ski
at the Olympics in Vancouver in 2010." Explained Berrry.
"The other guys have been really friendly and very competitive
and I really feel that has been good for me. They push me
really hard."
"It is great to win a title in my first British Land
National Championships. It'll be good to see if I can win
any more. Slalom is my strongest discipline and Super G my
least favourite."
Meanwhile Chemmy Alcott will be hoping that the weather holds
to allow the championship downhill to take place tomorrow
as scheduled. Her itinerary meant she missed out on today's
race, but the defending Women's champion is looking to retain
her title tomorrow.
British Land Alpine Ski Championships.
Meribel, France.
British Junior Downhill: Men:
1 F Mickel (Edinburgh/The British Land Alpine Ski Team) 1:02.17,
2 R Cruickshank (Banchory/The British Land Alpine Ski
Team) 1:02.27,
3 D Berry (London/The British Land Alpine Ski Team) 1:04.42,
4 A Baxter (Stirling/The British Land Alpine Ski Team) 1:04.48,
5 G Samuels (Gt Missenden Bucks/The British Development Team)
1:04.83.
Women: 1 L Sharp (Glasgow/The British Land
Alpine Ski Team) 1:06.24,
2 K Head (Oxford/The British Development Team) 1:06.48,
3 E Norton (Grantown on Spey/The Scottish Alpine Ski Team)
1:07.38.
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