BARSC

The Junior FIS races finished in Alpbach with the second of the Giant Slalom races. After two days of snow falling and fine rain, the race piste was hard and fast. The arrival late on Sunday night after the Slalom of the Slovenian team gave the races a better penalty yet the challenging race piste meant exciting races.

The British challenge in the Junior races was not as strong as could have been expected. The disappointing decision of the English, Welsh and Scottish teams not to attend the races and compete in Scandinavia, deprived the racers attending of the opportunity to pit themselves against some of the best talent Britain has to offer at the moment. Whilst the need to get the best starts possible is important for racers, for such a championship not to have any top British racers attending a British organised FIS race is not good.

The stars, in terms of those attending, of these races, the third time they have been held in Alpbach, were Kayleigh Hill, Sarah Howes, Rachel Adcock and Rebecca O'Neill in the girls races. All four girls took the fight to the international field that comprised Dutch, Slovenian, an Austrian regional team as well as an extremely talented younger Ukranien racer, Bogdana Matsotska. Carla Gardiner also showed glimpses of the potential she has. With penalties in the eighties and nineties for the three racers, these racers were not as strong as other races around. The conditions of the pistes, often maligned in the past, were of great quality and the small field allowed less experienced racers low start numbers and good conditions in which to race. In the boys races, Oli Robinson, Simon Howes and Colin Armstrong took the plaudits in a week boys field.

Kayleigh Hill took the British honours in the Slalom, second overall with Sarah Howes second and Rachel Adcock third. The expected challenge from Rebecca O'Neill failed to materialise as she came out on the first run. Hill was the only racer in the field who managed to stay within touching distance of the Ukranien yet even she was outclassed by the Ukranien. In her first FIS race, Carly Phillips managed to show glimpses of her potential from the Children's era as she took a very creditable 5th place in the British race and 11th overall.

The Junior Boys slalom was noticeable for the high number of racers that were racing with no points that made it into the top ten finishers. Whilst the race was easily won by the Georgian Iason Abramashvili, Austrian Mathias Stiedl made a mess of things on the second run that saw him drop from second to tenth. His loss was Oli Robinson's gain. Robinson, racing again seriously after taking a year out to study, took 4th overall and top British honours. Simon Howes and Callum Peace took the remaining podium places in the British field. A promising result looked on the cards for Colin Armstrong before he took a tumble a dozen gates from home yet still managed to salvage 5th Brit home just behind Mark Ratnage.

Kayleigh Hill again took top British honours as the weather turned from rain the previous day to snow. With a foot of new snow on the course, the conditions meant caution had to be taken. Despite being in touching distance of the podium, Hill was just too far off the pace to challenge for overall honours. The late arrival of the young Slovenian team brought more steel to the fight. The rolling course and road section caught many of the inexperienced racers out yet more performances like this from first year junior Carla Gardiner will make it even harder for selectors to leave the fun loving talent from Edinburgh out of teams in the future. Although she has come to the sport late, the Scot decided to do the BARSC races rather than her native Scottish races in Norway as she felt the competition would be harder at BARSC! Rebecca O'Neill held her line and took ninth overall on her way to being third Brit comfortably ahead of Rachel Adcock and Sarah Howes in 4th and 5th respectively. The international race was won by Meta Lavric from Slovenia ahead of compatriot Mateja Terseglav. Geertje Derksen from Holland took third ahead of Hill. (Picture of Kayleigh Hill, courtesy of Clifford Photography)

In the boys race, the lack of British talent saw no British racer make the top 15 finishers. The race was won by the Swiss Armando Stoehr ahead of Austrian Florian Putz with another Swiss racer, Joeri Puenchera, in third. Simon Howes took top honours just ahead of Colin Armstrong and Max Constanduros third. Luke Potts, in his first ever Giant Slalom on snow, took fourth with Callum Peace in fifth.

At last the sun came out! Hard snow and perfect cold visibility gave the BARSC FIS races a positive lasting memory. With the Slovenians not racing, Derksen from Holland took top honours ahead of the young Ukranien Matsotska and Liilemor Alkema from Holland. After a disappointing first run, Rebecca O'Neil finally put down a run that displayed her potential in the second run. O'Neill's second run deprived Kayleigh Hill of a clean sweep and put the two British girls in 4th and 5th overall. With two steady runs, Rachel Adcock picked up third and 9th place overall.

In the boys race a second win for the Georgian Abramashvili coincided with a better performance by the British racers. Robinson underlined his potential by learning from his mistake in the previous race to come from third Brit after the first run to take top honours as he carved his way into 11th overall. Just behind him was Simon Howes and a disappointed Armstrong who had been overjoyed to be leading after the first run, yet slipped down to 3rd Brit and 13th overall. Dow Travers and Luke Potts took the remaining top 5 places amongst the Brits.

(Picture of Oli Robinson. Both pictures courtesy of Clifford Photography. Pictures of all racers are available from sales@cliffordphotography.co.uk)

A small entry for the Mini races saw a convincing win for Charlotte Jesse in the girls race ahead of Katherine Peace and Lucinda Adams. In the boys race, Ben Alexander took top honours ahead of Stefan Brellisford and Daniel Poth. Charlotte Jesse underlined her potential by beating all the times the boys could muster. Mention must be made of the tremendous run made by the youngest racer in the boys field, Robert Poth as he finished in 5th place, three tenths behind Thomas McLaughlin despite being 3 years younger. Both winners finished comfortably ahead of their nearest rivals. Well done to all that took part!