After a highly successful training camp in Schladming, Austria, just before Christmas, the Surbiton High School skiers were back and eager to go for the first set of races for the 2024/25 alpine season, this time travelling to Flaine, France, for the British School Girls Championships.
The team of six had an extremely long travel day, taking over 14 hours to arrive in the resort, with two cancelled flights and a stopover in Frankfurt before arriving in Geneva. Once we had arrived at the resort, thankfully with all of our luggage, we started with two days of training.
On the first day, we got used to the long boards of GS skis, with a morning of training Giant Slalom followed by ski prep and revision/catching up with missed schoolwork from the travel day. On Sunday, we got our disco feet back with a morning of training slalom with on-slope coaching with the use of the new radios, thank you to the Ski Club PA and SHS PA for their funding contributions to those.
In the afternoon, the first races of the trip were underway. This was the A team parallel race on the Stadt. The A team consisted of year 10 pupils; Immy M, Saskia S and Rose J. Unfortunately getting a tough draw for the parallel, although fought very hard they were knocked out earlier by the very strong team from South Hampstead, who went on to win the event. After two days of wonderful conditions in the resort and some incredible training with some clear goals in mind for the upcoming competitions, we were feeling ready, correctly set up and supported for a good set of races, which are at the highest school level.
On Monday, slalom day, the conditions were tough with heavy rainfall resulting in the course needing to be salted. These tough conditions were then increased with nerves and with 60 racers out of the 168 racers unable to complete the course correctly, the day was quickly shaping up to be a tough one. The conditions very much differed from the conditions during the training day but nevertheless, we powered through to achieve some respectable results despite these challenges for the team. Results consisted of Saskia finishing 5th, and Rose 8th in the U16 category. After a tough day on the hill, the team regrouped during evening video analysis, assessed the pros and cons of the race and had some clear goals for the Giant Slalom race.
After a heavy snowfall overnight, all competitors started to slip, trying to make the race track safe enough to race. Eventually, we were able to course inspect, the team led by Miss Archbold took on an in-depth inspection looking at any concerns in the course especially focusing on where the snow would fall away leaving a rut due to the heavy snowfall overnight. After the start being held for an hour and lots and lots of slipping the final race eventually got underway. Again, the conditions were tough, but the team worked together to strategise and go out the gate with a plan for their performance which could be executed. The team preserved and worked together to encourage each other to perform as best they could in these conditions. A highlight from this race day was Immy who came away with 3rd place in U16.
As a team, we are feeling proud of our performances and are going home with a sense of comradery and enjoyment. As captains, we want to say thank you to The Ladies Ski Club for some great races and to the support and coaching team from Surbiton, Miss Archbold, Miss Slater and Miss Wilkey, for empowering us through such a great opportunity and experience.
Next up, Interschools, in March…
Written by Amy R-E (Captain) & Elizabeth O (Vice Captain)
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Categories: Senior School Senior School Sports Surbiton High School Sports