SnowsportGB Newsletter Volume 09
Alpine
 The
countdown has begun. Holidays six weeks away on the horizon
are one of the things that are keeping Chemmy Alcott's energy
levels up. A whistle-stop tour of Thailand may be planned
with some of her world cup chums, but in the meantime this
weekend she will be focussing on cementing her place at the
World Cup Finals in Giant Slalom.
Chemmy skied to ninth in the final world cup downhill of
the season before the Finals. On what she described later
as the toughest course of the season in Tarvisio, Italy she
skied 1:53.58, less than one second behind the USA's Julia
Mancuso - one of her summer holiday companions. She admitted
later that her brief break at home after the world championships
helped salve her frustrations and rebuild her resolve and
her energy.
After a solid 15th overall in the Super Combined event and
delivering the 5th fastest time in the downhill leg, Chemmy
had served notice that her form was on the up. She took full
advantage of an early start number and enjoyed a brief spell
in the leader's enclosure, bowing out to Canada's Emily Brydon
who secured the third step on the podium. Olympic Champion
Mancuso snatched victory to strengthen her bid for the overall
World Cup title. Her main downhill rival, Renate Goetschl
finished second.
British Land Alpine Team Head coach, Mark Tilston said, "This
is a fantastic result for Chemmy. She needed the break and
has been skiing well since she returned to snow. She has made
some technical improvements from which she has drawn renewed
confidence."
Sadly even with her ninth place, which equalled her 2004
ninth in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy Alcott just missed out on
qualifying for the Finals. Only two points separated her from
qualification.
"That is really tough to take, because twice this season
I have been 31st and just fractions out. At the time you don't
worry too much about it and look ahead, but now you kind of
regret it."
"I was really pleased with my finish though. It makes
it a good season now and relieves some of the pressure after
the ninth in 2004. In so many ways that had become a millstone
because it was a while ago but it is the thing that everything
is measured against, and now I have proven I can do it and
it is my second top 10 this season and was on the toughest
and most dangerous course of the season so I am pleased. There
was a 40 minute hold before I went because a girl had been
hurt, but I was just so 'in my zone' that I did not lose any
focus."
"Being home was good for me because I realised why it
is that I have not been able to ski the way I have wanted
to. There is just not the strength in my legs I need and a
lot of that is down to missing out on all my strength and
conditioning training last summer. So now I understand it
is really about trying to manage it and keep all I have for
race days. All the way recently I feel like I have been fighting
it. But now I have given in and understood and I have to manage
it."
"I am working now with lots of new ideas for the future,
different training. So much is about what I have learned what
works for me. For example coming in from skiing and doing
an hour and a half on the bike, I can achieve the same with
25 minutes of recovery with some sprints. It is about what
works for me."
"I am looking forward now to just getting some big blocks
of solid nine week training done in the summer."
Among the focal points for the early summer Chemmy is planning
her first triathlon at Eton near Windsor. She has not yet
done any swimming training but considers it has to be in her
genes, given that her mother Eve was a GBR level swimmer.
Chemmy is now working with new management at home in the
UK and isdetermined to put in place all the building blocks
for next season so that there is no room for excuses.
Snowboard
The British Snowboard Team continued their recent impressive
results when Scottish rider Ben Kilner made Finals in the
men's Half Pipe at the US Grand Prix event in Idaho, USA.
Ben qualified 6th in a field of 70 made up of top riders including
Ross Powers, Danny Kass, and Olympic Gold Winner Shawn White.
Out of the 16 riders in the Finals Ben finished 12th beating
the X-Games winner Steve Fisher.
This result confirms that Ben has overcome the ankle injury
that hampered his performances at the start of this season.
Lesley McKenna and Dan Wakeham both achieved Top 20 results
in the recent World Cup Half-Pipe at Calgary. Lesley was 11th
in the ladies event and Dan finished 19th in the men's event.
Zoe Gillings continued her climb up the World Cup rankings
with an 11th place at the World Cup snowboard cross event
at Lake Placid, USA. This result ranks Zoe 10th in the World.
In the men's snowboard cross at Lake Placid, USA James Foster
finished 37th out of 60 men. This result moves James to 45th
in the World Cup rankings. This race is his best to date and
demonstrates the progress the TASS 2012 athlete has made since
moving into this discipline from Half-Pipe.
Nordic
 As
in other parts of Europe, snow conditions for the European
Youth Olympics, Spain, were poor when members of the junior
cross country team demonstrated that they are on track with
their targets for the season. The mixed relay team of Alex
Standen, Sarah Young, Andrew Musgrave, and Fiona Hughes finished
in 18th place ahead of other developing cross-country skiing
nations. Andrew Musgrave led the way for the whole team in
the individual events. His 47th place out of 93 competitors
has to be seen in the context of a very short skiing career
along with minimal time on snow, in contrast to the top skiing
nations competing at the event.
The junior squad's commitment to a strenuous training programme
along with enthusiasm and motivation is typified by Alastair
Duncan putting in around 600 hours of training in a year.
He is currently in Canada preparing for the World Junior Championships
in March. Alastair finished third in a regional sprint event
in Canmore recently, establishing a good foundation for the
championships in Tarvisio. Interestingly Alastair's coach,
Anders Lenes, noted that Alastair's speed on the downhill,
clocked at 84kmph, is almost equivalent to World Cup standard.
As for the other juniors Alastair will need more years of
endurance training to compete successfully in distance events
at international level.
Following Tarvisio, Alastair is planning to compete in the
Canadian Junior Championships in Quebec on 20 March. Alastair
commented: "I am really looking forward to March. I have
been building up to this all year. This is really only my
first race season and I have met my goals and objectives so
far. The support of local businesses like Mountain Spirit
is just invaluable - this is a highly technical sport requiring
technical equipment and waxes.
British Championships
The BRITS
The organisers of the British Snowboard and Freeski Championships
are excited to announce that Quiksilver has joined forces
with the current impressive line up at the forthcoming BRITS
10th -- 17th March 2007, Laax, Switzerland, to take the title
of the Quiksilver British Big Air Championships and introduce
the new head-to-head format.
Spencer Claridge, Director of Soul Sports quoted: -- "We're
stoked to get Quiksilver back involved with the British Championships
as they, like us, wish to push the limits of freestyle snowboard
and skiing to the max and give the UK athletes a springboard
onto the World stage. Quiksilver were right behind our decision
to implement a new head-to-head format which will demand more
from the athletes as they are required to work through four
rounds of qualification to reach the final, with a limit on
the repetition of like-tricks throughout -- the real test
of an athlete's true ability."
The BRITS, now ranked as a 3-star TTR event, offers a mixture
of the best of British snowboard and freeski action, alongside
cutting edge tunes in Europe's premiere freestyle resort of
Laax, Switzerland. To help make it even more affordable and
easier to get from your sofa to the slopes, The BRITS have
secured some amazing package deals starting at £199pp
including accommodation and lift pass, plus exclusive rates
on flights and transfers out to the event. To ensure you don't
miss out, check out the new BRITS website to book now - www.aimseries.com
The BRITS competition is based on open entry for all abilities.
Online registration is now live, so to pre-register to compete
go to: www.aimseries.com/0607/brits/registration.htm
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