Girls finish
races under a blanket of new snow
The girl’s alpine
programme at the Youth Olympics came to a conclusion as fresh snow
fell on top of the hard packed snow.
There was a high fall out rate from many of the top racers,
especially down the steep section at the top of the course.
While the course crew did a great job in keeping the racing
going, the juddery and grip less snow caused many of the racers
problems and made some of the rising stars of the sport look
extremely poor. The race was won by Ptera Vlhova from Slovakia
having won both runs with Roni Remme from Canada taking second and
Ekaterina Tkachenko from Russia winning the bronze.
With a lot of the
field including the two Austrians and the winner of the girls Giant
Slalom, Clara Direz, struggling to come to adapt their technique to
the conditions, mistakes were common. Estelle Alphand, the star of
the girls races having won the Super G and two silvers, slipped on
her inside ski on the first run and was able to recover and climb
back up the field to make 6th spot. This was a great
example of not giving up despite making a mistake.
A third of the
field saw their dreams of glory in the slalom disappear on the first
run, sadly including Rachelle Rogers for Britain. Rogers skied the
difficult top section well, maybe a little conservatively but with a
large number of racers starting in front of her crashing out, this
was maybe not such a bad idea. As the course came down past the
start of the team parallel slalom, the pitch was more constant and
gave the girls something to attack. Sadly for Rogers she came to
grief about a dozen gates from the finish and would have been in a
great position for the second run.
Talking after the
race to Racer Ready, she explained that
the Youth Olympics “was mainly a learning experience. I have learnt
so much, which I can hopefully take away with me and use it to
become a better athlete.”
Ireland’s Florence
Bell put in a nervous first run to place in 31st and then
skied much better on the second run to move up to 24th, a
best ever result for Ireland at an Olympic Games. Bell was much more
relaxed on the second run and skied much more to her potential
according to Ireland’s coach Lynn Sharp.
So that is the
girls races at the Youth Olympics done and dusted. Next up is the
boys slalom. With a meter of new snow expected over night, will it
be more disco dancing or moguls in the morning….?
