Tignes (part 2)

For Tignes (Part 1) please click here

The national championship Giant Slalom was a goal of mine to win at the start of the season. GS is the discipline I've enjoyed my strongest results over the years and I really wanted to win the U18 GS races. I'd sat down at the very start of the season with Ruslan and identified winning both the NC and the NJC GS races at the British as my season aims. 

In the National Championships things were going really well. I knew I was fast and I was pushing myself hard all the way, however I got too greedy in the line coming off of a very technical section in the slope and unfortunately missed the next gate. I was both disappointed and massively annoyed at myself immediately after however I was also glad that I was pushing myself to the extent I was. To go that hard takes confidence and belief and I feel like my GS skiing has come on a lot this season even if the results up until this point didn't really give a true reflection. In a season decimated by injury and illness I was proud I had the courage and ability to attack a GS like this.

I wasn't going to dwell on the past as it was a hard week of racing and there is no time for mental weakness at the national championships. The slalom was next and I think that everyone will agree that it was a very tough set for the first run. It was hard to get into the rhythm of the course at first and then when you did it was ever changing due to the several combinations and constant changing terrain. A lot of people succumbed to the traps in the course however I got past a lot of these and then my binding pre-released and I lost a ski half way down the steep coming into the finish area. I was again really disappointed because a lot of my rivauuls for the title had came out in the tricky parts of the course and I'd dealt with these pretty well from a long way back. It essentially summed up my season in slalom in one run. Lots of promise, zero luck. 

That was the end of the national championships but the national junior championships were following the day after. 

In the NJC GS I was really motivated to challenge for the win after the disappointment of the previous race. I had a good start bib number and this offered me a very good chance to make it into the top 30 flip and attack the 2nd run. However I knew that I needed a solid first run before thinking about any of that. My first run was great. I was leading U18 and had indeed made the top 30 so I could attack the 2nd run and I had a good chance to make my first points of the season.

One of this season's aims achieved

I started the 2nd run at bib 5 so for once I had a clean course that offered a good chance to extend my lead for the 2nd run. My 2nd run was solid without being spectacular and whilst some of my rivals made up a small amount of time on me I managed to hold on to my lead and take the win! I was extremely happy not only had I achieved one of the goals I set out at the start of the season I had also scored a PB of 61 points which was both good for me and a huge relief. It was a good response to all of my injures and setbacks in the months before. I also had a trophy to take back to England with me which was a great reward for my efforts and will provide motivation going forward.

The final day of the championships was the NJC slalom. I had a lot of hopes for slalom as I only had a limited number of races until the end of the season and I had a lot of points to make up on the other lads I consider my competitors. Because my slalom points were a bit higher than the rest of the guys I started a lot of big numbers after them and the course cut up quite badly in the soft conditions. However I had to move on from that and give it my best shot. 

Again it was another tough set in the slalom for the first run and I was a long way off the leader however I did manage to squeeze into the top 30 flip again and had a clean course for the second run. My 2nd run was probably the best I have ever skied slalom in my life. I came 10th on that run only 0.7 seconds behind the winner meaning I had made up a big chunk of time and I was hoping to score some good points. I also finished 3rd under 18 in the slalom which was good for me especially I didn’t have any serious goals for the slalom, I just wanted to ski well and score points. In the end, that 3rd place was an added bonus to go with a season's best FIS score in slalom, however given I was unable to ski slalom for 9 weeks the latter wasn't exactly difficult to achieve.

Overall, despite it feeling at the time like a mixed week, I would say it was pretty good in hindsight. I'd made the podium every time I finished, I won a GS and scored my best points of the season. In addition, had I been in Tignes for the Super G I know I'd have been good enough to be in with a shout of the overall U18 NJC, something that fills me with confidence moving forward. 

However, I'm not naive enough to know that I also needed to back up some solid skiing with some good scores for my FIS page and whilst DH, SG & GS points are solid and more or less reflect where I am there is still a huge differential between my FIS points in slalom and what I can do. Given the season I've had however, the ugly numbers next to my name in slalom can't really be helped right now. 

In hindsight, the Delancy British Championships have been pretty kind for me for another year. I podiumed every time I completed, I was competitive every day and would've fancied my chances of taking the NJC U18 overall had I raced the SG.

Looking ahead, I now have the chance to go on from here and score hopefully score some points in the Citizen races I have lined up on my programme. I've learned much this season, it's just a pity that so much of it revolved around dealing with injury and illness.

Thanks to Ruslan, Ali & the BSA team for coaching me and Chris back in Telford for advice & support. Thanks also to everyone who has supported me this year - Head, Ski Bartlett, Velocity Health & Fitness, The Winter Sports Foundation, The British Ski Academy, Telford Ski Club, Uvex and the great press coverage I've had from the Walsall Advertiser. Roll on 2015/16.

Tignes (part 1)

The British Championships has usually been pretty kind to me. A win in the Super Combined last year, 2nd overall the year before and lots of podiums in earlier years. Meribel was certainly a happy hunting ground. This year with the races in Tignes, things would be a different challenge.

A change of venue made it tough for everyone. No one really knew the slopes and how the sets would be, the timings for races were new and it was all a bit of a stab in the dark for the first few days. 

That once in a lifetime moment

Strangely, my British Championships started off in London, at Wembley to be precise. Missing the Super G races, arguably my strongest discipline, to watch my football team Walsall was unquestionably a huge sacrifice. However it was a sacrifice I was always going to make. My skiing is hugely important to me and Super G offers me genuine podium opportunities but with a team like Walsall you only get one chance to go to a place like that. Seeing them walk out into the National Stadium in front of 72000 people was a truly spine tingling experience, so despite it being a tough choice the answer was always going to be 36 hour round trip to Wembley. 

As it turned out the Sunday Super G's were cancelled and moved back 24 hours. At that point I knew I'd made the right decision to fly back as I'd have been fuming if I'd missed Wembley for a cancelled race day. However it was still slightly frustrating to see the following day's results and how everyone had benefited from the arrival of the French National team with a bit of a FIS points bonanza. That said I knew I had already scored respectable points in Super G this season and deep down I've got a pretty good idea of where I rank against my competitors in this event.

A nice start to the week

I flew in for the Downhill on the Monday. At first it was only meant to be a training run but as the day wore on it became a training run then a race, then a training run + two race runs. Three runs of downhill after a day of travelling took a lot out of me both mentally and physically, however I was skiing downhill pretty much for fun this year rather than for points and results. Going as fast as possible gives me an amazing feeling that is difficult to describe and I didn’t want to ruin that by putting pressure on myself when thinking about points. That can come when I've got a lot more downhill miles in the tank. For now just going from A to B as quickly as possible and learning the discipline was all I needed to enjoy myself. That I managed to grab a second place in the NJC was a great way to kick start my British Championships and a bit of a bonus result.

After the slog of downhill there was a day off racing and although it sounds silly given I had only been in Tignes for 24 hours the downhill’s really did sap my legs so a bit of a lie in was particularly welcome. 

We started off that morning with a good confidence building slalom course. I needed to score a result in slalom as I hadn't done any training or racing with my hand in plaster for 8 weeks of the season and illness had left me in no shape to compete in early January. The morning went really well however, I got some fantastic runs in and these gave me a huge boost of confidence to go into the upcoming slaloms. Following a quick lunch we had a short training block of GS. The GS was also going great for me until the last run where I crashed hard into the base of the gate, face first. I was pretty shaken by the whole accident and I wasn't feeling the best for a good 24 hours after the injury. My face was covered in cuts and scabs and whilst my brace probably saved my front teeth it absolutely shredded the inside of my mouth. More worryingly however, my knee was very sore internally from twisting during falling and it did knock my confidence for what was ahead.

For Tignes (part 2) please click here

English Alpine Champs 2015