A great weekend for the club with skiing on Saturday for some at Hillend followed by the normal Alford Training on Sunday.
Saturday saw 11 athletes competing in the Bairns and Lassies race held at Hillend, Edinburgh. The day started off with a 7.30am bib collection (little bit antisocial) followed by course inspection and then 2 runs down a GS from the top. U12 racers needed 1 run to count and U14 and U16 needed combined times. We had 9 U12 racers and 2 U16 girls competing, this is a great number of U12 racers and hopefully this number will continue to grow. Race Support was led by acting head coach James and assisted by Calum S, there was no stoppage between runs so was a pretty busy morning with 120 racers for two runs. All the Gordon Skiers skied exceptionally well especially those who were skiing Hillend for the first time, Hillend is not the most forgiving of slopes and can be a little bit daunting when stood in the start gate of a 450m dry slope. Beth W put in two solid runs with a 0.3second improvement on her 2nd run to give her 1st place in U16 Female whilst two of our youngest members , and Hillend first-timers, were on the podium in the U8 boys with Glenn L taking 3rd and Finn R coming away with 1st. Well done to all racers especially those that podiumed and hopefully this is the start of excellent race entries and results for the season to come.
Sunday was a slightly busier day than normal at Alford with Blues and Datawax doing ski prep demos and giving advice whilst Cafe2U were serving hot drinks and bacon/sausage rolls which seemed to be going down well with parents and children alike - some even choosing to ski and eat on the go!
Due to most coaches being available today I decided to take the day off and do some observation , a task Gary wanted to do earlier in season but coach numbers didn’t allow, to see how coaching was progressing and see the general atmosphere in the club. The coaching seems to be going down well with all the kids coming off smiling and the improvements in their skiing are clear and the feedback from parents is positive and rewarding.
RD1 and RD2 were on timed runs this morning on a slightly more challenging course than they have had previously with a hard left legged turn after a combination. Despite the course being tough both groups were giving it their best shot and the times were improving throughout the session. PS1 and PS2 were continuing the work and progression they have been on during the season and included some synchro skiing and Jamie has PS1 doing some circus tricks (balancing poles) whilst skiing down. RD3 and RD4 again were continuing to build their skills and week on week the level is improving whilst the coaches challenges the skiers to new drills.
The Head to Head races were exciting as usual with some very tight races and those that fell bounced back to continue racing. Today was exceptional in the fact that some teams had to have 2 skiers on the course to try compete against another team but I think the prize for ‘bending the rules’ goes to Mark R team who managed to have 3 skiers on the course at once in the hope to chase down the winning team today. The honours of winning team go to the acting head coach and his fellow team mates.
| Name |
Time |
| Kieran Lennox |
8.65 |
| Daisy Cowie |
8.92 |
| Logan Duncan |
9.14 |
| Torin
Liversidge |
9.62 |
| Archie Duncan |
9.68 |
| Murdo Reid |
9.73 |
| Harvey Sleigh |
9.93 |
| Ruaridh
Rogerson |
10.11 |
| Jack Sleigh |
10.19 |
| Kizzy Scott |
10.31 |
| Jacob Ipsen |
10.46 |
| Finlay Cooper |
10.54 |
| Alex Hay |
11.34 |
| Findlay
Cormack |
11.34 |
| Dylan Driver |
12.27 |
