L a t e s t  n e w s ..... Rachel Adcock and Gerard Flahive win both races at Scottish Dry Slope Championships ...

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

The sun made a welcome return to the slopes of Llandudno for the Welsh Open.  The slopes of Llandudno have seen some great racing over the years as it has hosted Celtic Cup races, Welsh Open and National Championships as well the British Championships.  Georgie Hunt took the honour of being fastest down the first run and thus last to go on the second run.  Hunt did not disappoint and backed up his win in the Welsh National to take a double win for the weekend ahead of Antony Heaversedge and Lee Bennett.  Jo Ryding took the spoils in the girls race ahead of Jayme Baggio and Gemma Harris.

The national titles have now been divided up with David Harrison (Scottish), Adam Lee (English) and Georgie Hunt (Welsh) all taking the spoils.  The British Championships at Hillend now beckon!  It remains to be seen how many of the top plastic slope racers make the trip to Hillend? 

The two courses, set by Robin Kellen and Ireland's Shane O'Conner, were up to the task of providing a test for the racers and a relatively low number of failures to finish is more testament to the attention being paid at course inspection!  The top few gates may have caught a number of the faster racers out but when every hundredth of a second counts, mistakes happen!

Hunt blitzed the first run and looked more like the racer that ruled the roost in the summer of 2003.  Standards have progressed since then and Hunt has had a tough time this summer as David Ryding dominated the Grand Prix scene.  Despite winning the Swadlincote race, Hunt has had to play second fiddle to Ryding and Lee at the majority of the top races.  Hunt won the Celtic Cup series yet this was scant consolation for the Hemel racer.  Bigger races await him on snow if he can recapture this form on snow!  Antony Heaversedge won at the Europeans yet has been inconsistent at other races.  On his day, Heaversedge is up there with the best dry slope racers, yet so often he makes the odd mistake that derails him.  Second place is not to be sniffed at but when you know you can go better, second is first loser!  Heaversedge's second run was a mere 0.08 seconds behind Hunt and demonstrated that he is a force to be reckoned with beating many of the older racers!  After a summer of University Lee Bennett lost out to Heaversedge (the two had the same time after the first run) yet still managed to hold on to a podium place in third ahead of Marc telling and Craig Ruddick.

In the girls race, Franki Simonds took the fight to Jo Ryding on the first run ending up an impressively close 0.19 seconds behind her.  Unable to grip the slope to its full effect, Simonds dropped off the pace in the second run allowing both Jayme Baggio and Gemma Harris to steal in and take the places on the podium, Simonds finishing fourth ahead of Rachel Adcock in fifth. 

The age group results saw victory for Dan Evans comfortably in Children 1 ahead of Chris Crane, Richard Leeson and Ireland's Simon Lyons all closely matched.  In the girls race, Alessia Thomas Jackson (10th overall) took the spoils ahead of Jeni Thomas and Shannon Taylor.

In children 2, Gerard Flahive demonstrated a solid future in taking the age group win (13th overall!) ahead of Blair Laidlaw and Michael Thelwell. Jayme Baggio took the age group victory ahead of Danielle Polley and Kirsty Hatcher.

Junior 1 saw another age group win for Andy Roose in 7th overall ahead of David Tee and Alex Jeal in 10th and 11th overall.  Franki Simonds took the girls win ahead of Lauren Cadman and Niamh Lyons from Ireland.

The older group was won by Antony Heaversedge in second overall ahead of Dan Wyatt and Hugh Wilson. Jo Ryding ahead of Gemma Harris and Rachel Adcock was how the girls race finished up.

The strength of the senior age group in the the men's race saw six seniors finish in the top ten! Georgie Hunt took the win ahead of Lee Bennett and Marc Telling.  By contrast Lucy Newman was the only senior female to finish the girls race!

Carl Ryding won the Masters age group ahead of Colin Tee (heeding his coaches warning to slow down perhaps?) and Robert Hales.  Janet Earnshaw Hamilton took the ladies title ahead of Caroline Simonds.

For full results click here

Pictures from Racer Ready are available click here