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).

Driving into Norwich the weather forecasters confidently predicted that the weather would hold for the weekend down the eastern side of the country.  With this the first of two stops for major races at Norwich, if the sun could hold, it would be great for some good racing.  With the news that another of the major slopes for dry slope racing (Swadlincote) was falling to the commercial plans of its owner (John Nike Leisure), the grey clouds that loomed the closer you got to Norwich, could have described the atmosphere at the slope.  What it did not aptly describe was the racing! 

Jo Ryding won all three of the Club National runs and she demonstrated why she is the leading lady on the dry slope circuit this year.  With many of the girls looking to her to slow down so that their times did not look so slow in comparison, Ryding has raised the bar higher and it is up to the others to match it and then beat it.  Rachel Adcock has raised her own game this season and won the last round of the Grand Prix Series following Ryding's unexplained mishap in Sunderland.  Adcock and Alice Thelwell have been the best of the rest this year and although Thelwell made an uncharacteristic error on the third run, she had been in contention for a place on the podium.  Both girls need to believe more in their ability and attack more, also putting pressure on Ryding.  Abby Clifford, another racer that has started to believe more in herself this season came through to take third overall.  Clifford's runs got progressively quicker and Adcock was lucky to stay in second.  A disappointing third run by Franki Simonds saw her finish on fourth when she really ought to have done better. Nicola Wilson took fifth and Charlotte Evans sixth.  Second through to sixth were separated by a mere half second. 

The men's race saw a fantastic tussle between David Ryding and Antony Heaversedge.  Ryding won the first run, Heaversedge came back and destroyed the course in clocking an even faster time before Ryding bettered it and took the spoils.  Heaversedge, going last on the final run was unable to reproduce the form of his second run and although his second time was quicker than Ryding's second best time, Ryding won by a mere 0.01 second.  If Heaversedge can put two runs together of the standard of his second run, then he will become a major force to be reckoned with on the plastic circuit.  Sadly for him, he has a tendency to falter on a pressure run.  While the attention focused on the titanic struggle Ryding and Heaversedge were having, Richard Coupe stole third place with a confident and clean third run. Coupe's third run was enough to push Marc Telling off the podium by 0.02 second. The first four were the only ones to go under the 13 second mark on any run.  Jai Geyer, in his first year as a Junior, took fifth. 

The mini's race saw Nia Jenkins comfortably win on her home slope ahead of Stephanie Davides and Victoria Orrell in the girls race.  In the Boys race, three of the four top mini's fought it out with Max Moss coming home ahead of Mikey Knowles and Ashley Breese.

Alessia Thomas Jackson won the Children 1 girls and took a very respectable 9th place overall in doing so.  In time Thomas Jackson will develop into a strong racer and for now needs to focus on the overall race rather than her age group if she is to extend herself.  Emily Evans, another with huge potential, came second in the age group (16th) and Sarah Ayling Bate took third (18th) in the Children 1 girls.  In the older age group, Charlotte Evans continued her fine run of form in winning the age group (6th overall).  Evans needs to attack a little more and learn were the boundaries are so that she can go even faster.  Harriet Steggles took second (8th) on her home slope and Laura Garden, also on her home slope, was third (11th overall).

In the boys Children 1 age group, Tom Kirton bounced back after a few weeks of indifferent form to win the age group ahead of Dan Evans and David Askew.  Nicholas Robinson took the spoils in Children 2 ahead of Mikey Thelwell and Andrew Watson.

In the Juniors, Jai Geyer won comfortably ahead of Stuart Riches and Lloyd Papantoniou.  In Junior 2, Ryding won ahead of Heaversedge with Michael Furness taking third in the age group. In the girls race Abby Clifford won the Junior 1 age group ahead of Franki Simonds and Lauren Cadman.  Junior 2 saw Jo Ryding ahead of Rachel Adcock and Nicola Wilson.

With no Senior ladies racing, Beverley Anderson took the Masters age group victory ahead of Sheila  Driscoll and Caroline Simonds.  The senior age group in the men's races is thriving.  The continuation of their careers sees many of the talented racers pitting themselves against the next generation of wannabees! Richard Coupe took victory ahead of Marc Telling and Tom Francis third.  In the masters age group, 16 Masters started and Dave Blackwell won ahead of James Le May with Carl Ryding not wanting to be out done by his two children taking third!

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