Early Season

It’s has been a somewhat tough start to the season this year and unseasonably warm weather has created challenges for many resorts throughout Europe. We began training on the 13^th December and as Les Houches was not yet open, we spent the first few weeks commuting each day through the Mont Blanc tunnel to La Thuile, Italy. Early season snow conditions in the Aosta Valley where excellent and we were able to get down to some really productive technical training and some SL gate training thanks to co-operation from the Italians. Following a little more snow and cold weather we were able to get skiing in Les Houches shortly after Christmas.

By the time things opened we had just over a week’s training left in our build up to hosting the Anglo Scottish races. With over 250 competitors due to attend we were all slightly nervous looking at the snow situation. Fortunately with cold enough temperatures to make snow and a lot of hard work form the resort, things where in shape ready to start racing on the 3^rd January.

*Coach Dave Tee working hard to get all the goggles dry for the start of the race

While snow conditions for the races where challenging with the only piste available being Maison Neuf Noir (middle section of the Chamonix world cup downhill), we managed to get all of them off with an incredible effort from the BSA team and the ESF staff. While it was probably the most difficult circumstances we have tried to run races in Les Houches, we have now only missed one day of racing in the last 7 years, due to too much snow (a pretty incredible record!). Unfortunately there was some controversy over the Super-G races which were not able to count for seeding. All I can say is that I have never had a smoother more positive day at super-G race whilst I have been skiing.

BSA had some exceptional results over the course of the races and some of the improvements in performance from our trainees on last season were quite staggering. Hannah LG won both GS races and SG’s by a considerable margin with some really impressive skiing. This resulted in a richly deserved call up to represent the GB U16 team at a new event taking place in Kitzbuhel, Austria at the end of the month, as part of the world cup weekend. There were also some of really promising results from U16 girls with Megan Davis narrowly missing the podium in the final GS and Charlotte Pantelli posting some strong top 10 results.

In the U16 Boys, Kieren Troup showed the form we had been seeing in training in the first 2 SL races. Scott Buchan and David Christy really stepped up their skiing from last year. Scott topped off a great week by winning both SG’s with some incredibly fast skiing.

In the U14 girls Natasha Stocker and Rebecca Chastney showed some excellent skiing and BSA newcomer Katie Stuart great promise without having done a lot of training yet! .

In the under 14 boys the results where incredibly strong. George Case had a great set of races throughout, while Charles Rankin, Jake Doyle, Euan Robertson and Joe Christey all made the podium. Tom Hudson showed perhaps the biggest step up from last season to take victory in the 2^nd SL race!

Alas the parent’s race had to be cancelled to focus getting the other races off. Always a great spectacle, we look forward to seeing you again at interschool’s races in Les Houches in March!

In the minis competition, Brendon and Bori ran a really successful set of races and it was great to see some exceptional performances from a number of BSA trainees. Iona Ross and Ted Slade where really consistent on the podium throughout in the under 12’s as was Sophie Stocker in the U10’s.

BSA results are shown below.

Children Slalom 1

U14 Girls 5^th Natasha Stocker

U14 Boys 1^st George Case

U16 B 2^nd Kieren Troup, 5^th Scott Buchan

Mini Stubbie SL

U10 G Sophie Stocker 2^nd, Kita O’neil 4^th

U12 G Iona R 3^rd

U12 B Ted S 1^st, 4^th Euan McDougall

Children Slalom 2

U14 Boys 1^st Tom Hudson, Ewan Robertson2^nd, 4^th Joe Christey

U16 Boys 1^st Kieren Troup

Mini GS1

U10 Girls 2^nd Sophie Stocker, 4^th Kita O’neil

U12 Girls 2^nd Iona Ross, 5^th Ana Stocker

U12 Boys 2^nd Ted Slade

Children GS 1

U14 Girls 5^th Natasha Stocker

U14 Boys 2nd George Case, 3^rd Charles Rankin 4^th Joe Christey and Jake Doyle

U16 Girls 1^st Hannah Loeffen-Gallagher

U16 Boys 2^nd Matt Heginbotham, 4^th Scott Buchan, 5^th David Christey

Mini GS 2

U10 Girls 2^nd Sophie Stocker, 3^rd Kita O’Neil

U12 Girls 2^nd Iona Ross

U12 Boys 2^nd Ted Slade

Children GS 2

U14 Girls Natasha Stocker 5th

U14 Boys 2^nd Joe Christey, 3^rd Charles Rankin, 4^th Jake Doyle

U16 Girls 1^st Hannah Loeffen-Gallagher,  Megan Davis 4^th

U16 Boys 3^rd Scott Buchan, 4^th David Christey

Mini All Star GS

U12 Girls 3^rd Iona Ross, 4^th Anna Stocker

U12 Boys 4^th Ted Slade

Children SG 1

U16 Girls 1^st Hannah Loeffen-Gallager

U14 Girls 5^th Natasha Stocker

U16 Boys 1^st Scott Buchan, 3rd Kieran Troup, 5^th Matt Heginbotham

U14 Boys 2^nd George Case, 3^rd Jake Doyle, 4^th Tom Hudson, 5^th Ewan Robertson

Children SG 2

U16 Boys 1^st Hannah Loeffen-Gallager, 5^th Megan Davis

U16 Boys 1^st Scott Buchan, 4^th Kieran Troup

U14 Boys 2^nd George Case, 3^rd Jake Doyle, 4^th Tom Hudson, 5^th Charles Rankin

 

*Charles, Jake, George and Joe all on the podium

*Ewan Robertson taking the U14 overall prize!

Following the races, the staff had a well-earned break, and for the trainees it was time for school to begin and for a little more routine to settle into the program at BSA

Coming up next we have the Welsh Championships in Champaluc, Switzerland at the end of the week.

Scott