Another large contingent of Aldershot racers circumnavigated the M25 to the gentle slopes of Brentwood. Unfortunately the course set for the timed event was more like a navigation exercise than a test of skiing skills which is not really very good for a regional race. The only good thing to come from it was watching one of the faster racers, who had arrogantly not bothered with course inspection, ski out on the second gate of the first run when he got lost! Just goes to prove that course inspection is important no matter how good you are and that course inspection skills are to be learned and developed just like skiing technique!
By the second run all of our racers had the measure of the course and along with the usual haul of medals we resumed our place at the top of the club team competition. In the individual results there were medals at both ends of the age groups. Starting in 1F, Sarah Woodward won the bronze medal and in the boy's equivalent Harry Deighton won the silver medal. Onto 2F where Phoebe Long won her first gold medal and Lucy Woodward equalled her sisters achievement by winning the bronze. The 3F group was once again dominated by Aldershot with 5 of our racers in the top 6. Hannah Bozier again won the gold medal with Boo pickup winning the silver medal and Jenny Davies the bronze. In the next girls group (4F) Ellen Hathway won the silver medal and finally in the 9M group Graham Nayler held it all together on the last run to claim a well deserved gold medal.
In the scratch team races Adam Baker's team won the bronze medal while Toby Deighton's team won the gold medal. Then came the club team races.......
Once again the Aldershot power team were the victims of an awful decision from the officials which soured the event for many of us. We ran two teams in the team race with the A team being Peter Davies, Ellen Hathway, Hannah Bozier, Will Wheeler and Charley Lewis and the B team being Boo Pickup, Chelsea Hardaway, Jenny Davies, Oliver Deighton and Graham Nayler. For some reason the LSERSA team races have changed to a knockout format for the last couple of races and the B team were unfortunate to be drawn against Chatham in the first round and did not progress. Meanwhile the A team easily progressed to the semi final where they comfortably beat a stunned Bromley A team to make it to the final where they faced the strong Chatham team. Unfortunately they were then the victims of firstly a gate that did not want to stay in place followed by an overzealous marshall who thought he could replace it before Charley reached him. Given that he was only three gates from the start this was optimistic to say the least and Charley quite rightly refused to start with someone standing in the course. This was not the way the "referee" saw it who relied on the rules about a pole being displaced to instantly award the win to Chatham, thereby disregarding the bit in the rules about the racer having the right of protest if they are obstructed on the course!. On a positive note the team did win the silver medal and are clearly now seen as a serious threat to the previously dominant club teams in both SRSA and LSERSA.
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