| British Schoolgirls Races 2013 |
| January 31st 2013 |
Our team (Victoria, Miriam and me) met up in Flaine on Saturday evening. We arrived quite late so didn't get to look at the snow on Saturday - we were up early on Sunday morning to get some training in.  Since we were staying up the hill from the main village, we skied down in the morning and promptly got lost! Eventually, we found Flaine Forum and got on the snow - conditions were good. They were, however, radically different by the morning thanks to about a foot of new snow - since it was dark (bib collection being at 7.30am) we drove down from our apartment and could barely get the car through the snowdrift outside the garages. The course was similarly covered in snow and the race was delayed for a long time so that it could be made safe. Eventually, the sun came out and we raced. The delay, however, meant that the dual-slalom was cancelled. It was really exciting to be racing against Darcie, Katie, Hope, Honour, Anna and Alice; all fellow team mates from my days in the British Children's Team. We were all under strict team orders as to how we were to approach our GS runs - this served us well because we won the GS.  On Tuesday, although it was a grey and dreary day, there had been no more snow so all was set for the Slalom competition. Again, we had strict instructions regarding strategy and again, we followed the instructions. As a result, we won the Overall School's trophy, the Overall Team trophy, the GS trophy and Victoria and I each won individual trophies for the Combined competition in our age groups and I won the Combined trophy overall.  Of the 156 girls who raced, I came 1st in my age group and 1st overall. Out of the 52 school teams who entered, we came 1st in GS, 1st Overall, 3rd in Slalom and 1st in the team event. We beat past winners such as Strathallen and Surbiton, "Ivy League" public schools like St Mary's Ascot, Lady Eleanor Holles and Cheltenham Ladies' College (to name a few) and the internationally-renown Aiglon College which is based in the Swiss Alps. We also beat famous specialist sports schools like Milfield and Reeds and the historic ski clubs Kandahar and the Down Hill Only Club both of which were set up in the Alps in the 1920s. Our total haul as a team was 6 trophies and 17 medals (12 of them gold)! If only all races went this way!  We took our trophies in to show to our Headmistress and she was really pleased - we all had our photo taken with them all. Obviously, I'm pleased with all of the trophies but the one I like the best is the Ros Hepworth Cup (for Overall Combined Champion) which is silver and which has Chemmy Alcott's name engraved on it several times!  I am now looking forward to the European Youth Olympics in Brasov in a couple of weeks' time. |