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Report - Czech Republic 2003

XXXXI Ski-Interkriterium  

Manager: Jenny Shute

Trainers:  Kiro Kotev, David Jacobs  

Team:

Ch. I Girls:   Fern Barker, Hannah Wright

Ch. I Boys:  Thomas Baldwin, Aaron Tipping

Ch. II Girls:  Helena Bray, Danielle Bryson, Gemma Harris, Louise Thomas

Ch. II Boys: Michael Colyer, Christopher John  

The longer trip this year again proved well worth the extra expense and effort, and gave the seven athletes who went on to the Topolino event valuable extra time on snow, as well as extra race starts.  

As last year, the athletes improved their early performances in the Czech National event by a considerable margin when it came to the international event (as judged by their times relative to the Czech racers).

As always we received a terrific welcome - good hotel very close to the slopes, reliable and excellent transport (other than on the day of heavy snowfall - we had to walk up the last kilometre or so that morning - a demonstration of fitness in some, but not many!).  Several hours to walk around the centre of Prague on Day 1.  Snow plentiful, and excellent conditions for training and racing.  

A day of training (we had our own equipment - poles, drills), then two days of CZE qualifying races.  

Very high standard of racing in the CZE Nationals - an outstanding result from Aaron Tipping 4^th in GS (only 0.03 from 3^rd, and 0.17 from a silver medal); he was also 9^th in slalom.  Very strong performances also from TJ Baldwin, and good from Fern Barker.  Of the Children II, Louise Thomas proved the strongest, with excellent results in both disciplines.  

These events were followed by a further training day.  

Then two days of Ski InterKriterium.  180 competitors, 17 nations (including Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, and teams from Austria and Italy; Slovenia and Russia brought both A and B teams).  As always, extremely high standard of athletes - especially notable Slovakia and Slovenia.  Czech racers also very strong - CZE A, B and C teams.  

25th-26th January 2003

• Four British top 15 places in the slalom in the 41st Ski Interkriterium races

• Many congratulations to  Aaron Tipping 9th, TJ Baldwin 11th, Fern Barker 13th and Louise Thomas 14th

• Fern Barker makes another top 15 for GBR - 12th in GS

 

Czech Republic - National Championships Aaron Tipping missed out on a bronze medal in the GS by the narrowest of margins - 0.03 seconds.  On a snowy day that saw the bus unable to make it up the road to the resort (we walked!) and in difficult conditions of fog and continuous snowfall, Aaron's result was outstanding.  Only 1.52 seconds away from the winner, he was within 0.03 of a podium place. With two excellent runs, Louise Thomas finished strongly in 8th place, and Fern Barker was 9th. In the slalom, all four of our Children II girls finished in the top 13, with Dani Bryson heading the group in 7th position.  TJ Baldwin was 7th, and Aaron Tipping 9th in Children 1 Boys, and Fern Barker 12th in the girls category.

All British athletes gave of their best in the races, and behaved well on the whole.  However, the group knew each extremely well, and this led to some quite rowdy and unruly behaviour in the hotel and at the 'social' events, so that we did not always appear as professional off the hill as I would have liked.   

Kiro and Dave were fantastic both on and off the mountain - many thanks to both for an outstanding job.    

JCS/28 February 2003