Success for skiing girls

Girls from King's College and King's Hall were impressively successful at the recent British Schoolgirl Skiing Championships, held in Flaine, France. This year the standard was exceptional: these championships attract the very best racers in the country - two of the past winners will be at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver next month. It was as ever with a sense of awe that spectators watched the skill and bravery of our girls as they hurtled down the slopes.

This year we experienced what fine margins exist in ski racing, with results being decided by tenths or hundredths of seconds. Tara Bell form King's Hall finished third in the giant slalom which was fantastic, but she missed out on first by about eight tenths of a second. King's College sixth former Hollie finished ninth, which was another great result to finish in the top ten of the unregistered racers. Her sister Milla was very well placed after the first run and decided to give it everything in her second run, which ended dramatically as she crashed out on the course. Overall though this was a very pleasing set of results in the giant slalom.

The slalom was again over two runs. In cold and snowy conditions with poor visibility, the King's girls acquitted themselves very well. Milla posted an excellent time of just over fifty seconds, which put her in the top thirty overall. Tara skied into sixth in her age group, and Hollie was in the top ten in her section. All to go for on the second run. Milla went first, and as so often happens when you are really pushing things, she straddled a gate, and whilst she was able to climb back up and complete her run, her chance was gone.

Tara went next and knew that she had to post a good time in order to challenge for the podium. She gave it her all but ultimately she finished fifth which meant that she missed the podium by a heartbreaking five tenths of a second. The winner of the overall combined events in Tara's age group had beaten her by less than two seconds over the aggregate of the four runs. Hollie finished again in the top ten, which cemented her position of ninth in the unregistered racers overall.

Finishing eighth in the unregistered team event bears testament to the girls' competitiveness and desire to push themselves to the maximum.

 

29.01.10