The Gordon Skiers: SSBX 2016

Gordon Skiers had 4 racers entered into the Scottish Ski and Board Cross at Glenshee this weekend. The course was designed by Ed Drake during last week and everything was in place early Saturday morning for the start of what turned out to be a fantastic weekend of competition. The Course comprised of; start ramp, Wu- Tang, roller, roller, 5ft drop off, traverse, berm, roller, 4 rollers and finished with a table-top.

Saturday morning saw a ‘slow inspection’ for all racers followed by 2 practice runs to get the feel for the features. Ollie, Rachel, Kathleen and Nathan all seemed to enjoy the course and were looking forward to laying down their two timed runs. Timed runs commenced and each skier was given the chance to ski the course as fast as they could with their best time counting. The times were then used to seed the racers for Sundays heats.

After the timed runs on Saturday; Nathan was sitting in third, Ollie in fourth, Rachel in third and Kathleen in fourth – excellent skiing on Saturday by all 4 of them, excitement was building to see what they could produce on Sunday.

Sunday morning started with some amazing views across the valley from Butcharts and the course was in fantastic condition again having been prepared by Gordon Skiers coach James who was also working on the race team as Chief of Course for the full weekend. Course inspection was plain sailing with no changes to the course, 1 practice run followed which allowed the 4 athletes to ride the features again and check their lines in preparation for the heats. Wont bore you with the details on how the heats are made up but the general idea is that the top 2 from each heat go through to the next round until there is only 4 racers left in the category and then we have the final. Some categories had more heats than others. All 4 Gordon Skiers racers got through to their respective finals with some very tight racing in the process- it was ‘edge of seat’ spectating as the 4 racers skied side by side through the rollers and over the table top trying to gain any margins they could.

Ollie attacked all of his heats and skied the final race with expert precision and was just pushed slightly wide on the final table top forcing him to take a less than ideal line which resulted in him taking third place very close behind Kieran Troup.

Nathan was skiing fantastically well all weekend and showed no fear at all on the drop off, he was just unfortunate in his start on the final race which left him slightly behind going into the first part of the course, having said that he was seen pushing and skating all the way to the end in the hope he could just slide into third but the gap was just too far to regain- a very respectful fourth place for Nathan.

Kathleen cleared her fear of the drop off with ease and continuously skied the course with aggression all weekend- some of the best racing I have seen from her. There were some strong skiers in her category this year but she held her own and was in the pack all the way in the final race and took a well-earned third spot.

Rachel B was on form this weekend, nailing the timed runs yesterday and then working her way through the heats today, picking some decent lines and squeezing past her fellow competitors. In her final she was in the pack from start to finish and it was looking like a photo finish was going to be needed to decide 2^nd/3^rd/4^th place, just at the final jump Rachel skied into 2^nd place after a competitor fell.

All 4 skiers displayed great skiing and good sportsmanship throughout the whole weekend. A delightful squad to coach, a special thank you to Sophie who was over at Glenshee this weekend and stood in to help assist me with coaching and looking after the team while I dealt with course team duties.

Fantastic weekend for Gordon Skiers and here’s hoping for more results next weekend at Nevis.

Proud and tired coach Jame