L a t e s t  n e w s ..... Kelly Sage comes out of retirement to win British Indoor ahead of Alessia Thomas Jackson, Joe Ogden pushes James Foster into second in the men ... Ogden also wins final round of Salomon Xscape Indoor Series, Emily Whitelock wins girls race

'The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams' (Eleanor Roosevelt).

Antony Heaversedge returned to Wycombe and successfully defended his Wycombe International Title.  The weekend hosted the European Championships and Heaversedge skied with determination and more desire than seen from him this season.  In the two years since his Wycombe victory, Heaversedge has promised a lot and rarely delivered.  More often than not this has been due to the fact that Dave Ryding, Adam Lee and Georgie Hunt have blocked his way.  At Wycombe, Heaversedge skied a superlative second run.  Following Marc Telling down on the second run, Heaversedge knew he had to pull something out of his bag of tricks and this is what he did.  Jayme Baggio skied comfortably within herself to take victory in the female race ahead of a rejuvenated Anouska Callander and rising star Charlotte Evans.  Abby Clifford, winner of the Club National the day before, took fourth and Colette Carpenter demonstrated that she can mix it with the best girls on the circuit in rising from ninth after the first run with the second quickest second run time to come fifth.

Wycombe is one of the longer dry slopes in the UK and two decent courses were set out by Matt Woods and Robin Kellen to challenge the field.  The winner takes all mentality saw a high rate of attrition yet if you are not pushing it to the edge, then this is not the sport for you.  Sadly many racers came to grief on the lower section of the slope pushing it to the absolute limit. 

Emily Evans benefited from Alessia Thomas Jackson's demise on the first run to take the age group victory ahead of Charlotte Jesse and Alexandra Greasby in the Children 1 girls.  David Askew raised his game to win the boys race ahead of Niall Flahive and Peter Davies.

Jayme Baggio took overall and Children 2 age group spoils with Charlotte Evans in second and Kirsty Hatcher in third.  Charlotte Evans has been a revelation this summer in reeling in much of the age group.  Jayme Baggio though has constantly been ahead of her and Evans must now set her sights on the standard that Baggio regularly reaches.  Andrew Watson won the boys race ahead of Dan Curtis and Gerard Flahive.

Abby Clifford took the age group win in the Junior 1 age group for girls ahead of Colette Carpenter and Kathryn Barber.  While Clifford has been challenging at the top for a while, Carpenter and Barber have started to make results for themselves recently.  Barber rose from start number 23 to place 6th overall.  Had it not been for a late entry Carpenter would have started much higher than the 52 she started at.  Jai Geyer has grown into a force to reckoned with this summer regularly finishing in the top ten in Grand Prix races.  Victory in the age group as well as 7th overall was a result he deserved for some tidy yet explosive racing.  Stuart Riches took second ahead of James Knock.  Riches will be looking to go one better at the All England on his home slope in September.  Knock has seen a steady improvement all summer and could well be challenging for the podium places at the All England if he can keep improving.

Midway through the summer, Anouska Callander struggled with skis and her confidence was in tatters.  With second overall and an age group win, she has regained her form as the season enters the National Championship area.  Christina Pennock and Kerri Prince joined her on the podium in the Junior 2 age group.  Antony Heaversedge took the age group win to add to his overall win with Oli Robinson taking second and Hugh Wilson third.

Lucy Newman won the Senior age group ahead of Kirsty Stephens and Holly Cutler.  Catherine Reed won the Masters age group.  Marc Telling took the senior age group victory ahead of Craig Ruddick and David Hatcher with his older brother, Paul, in fourth in the Seniors age group.  Such is the strength in the Seniors age group that Paul Telling finished 6th overall and 4th in the age group!  Marcus Perner, one of the coaches from BARA took victory in the Masters age group ahead of James Gambrill and Paul Bunton.

Despite a strong contingent from Ireland being welcomed at this race, it was the Austrian teams that caused the interest.  A group of youngsters from Telfs in the Tirol came across under the guidance from Toby Fischel and BARA brought across in their group Alex Koll who skis to 8 FIS points.  How the tables were turned!  While none had skied on the matting before Saturday, the improvements they all made showed that they have the technique yet the unique technique for plastic does take time to master.  The line Koll had was noted by all as his times tumbled with each run.

For full results click here

Racer Ready has a full set of pictures from the race.  If you would like to see the thumbnails of any racer, please click here and mention the name of the racer.