Independent British Schoolgirls’ Skiing Championship Flaine 2012
51 teams took part in the Independent British Schoolgirls’ Skiing Championship in Flaine, France from Friday 27th January to Wednesday 1st February.
The A Team – Clementine, Annabel and Florence, and the B Team – Imogen, Lily and Hana, took part in the competition.
Having travelled to Flaine on Friday, the girls spent the weekend in training with Vincent Chanel, their dedicated instructor. Practice over; Monday morning brought the Giant Slalom competition. The girls had their first run and, if they managed to complete the course, they had the chance for a second run: five out of our six girls managed to get a second run.
In the afternoon, the girls had the Parallel Slalom. In the first round, the B Team drew Glenalmond, who with two GB and one Scottish Skier, proved too strong for our girls.
The A Team got into the fourth round and then drew Strathallan (three GB skiers) and sadly lost. However, since Strathallan went on to win, beating Kandahar Team in the final, and the girls were not too disappointed.
On Monday evening, SMC were in first position by 3 whole seconds – amazing! The B Team were placed in 5th position at the end of the first day in the Giant Slalom B section – a fantastic achievement for them, as there were registered skiers in the B Team section too.
On Tuesday, the girls competed in the Slalom. Clementine, as she was going so fast, missed a gate on her first run and had to dart back up the course with her skis on to cross the gate line, she still finished the course in one minute, and both Annabel and Florence had good runs, keeping the A Team in the race. Thankfully, all three of the girls had fantastic second runs, despite the snow, -10 º C temperatures and zero visibility. The B Team also all came down with very good times and then they just had to wait until 5.30pm for the results.
The B team managed to hold their times and finished 5 out of 13 in their section, this is the best result ever for a B team!
The A team results were as follows:
Third – Wellington College
Second – Wycombe Abbey A
First – St Mary’s Calne!
Overall, we were British Schoolgirls Unregistered Number One for the first time ever – the new ski suits definitely helped! A huge thank you to the parents who contributed to to the ski race suits, also thank you to Mr Wright for his technical videos and performance analysis. Thanks also to White Horse Taxis for buying a new trailer to get all of our kit in!
Mrs Natalie Baldwin
Outdoor Activities Co-ordinator and Physical Education Teacher