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).

Emma Wigman surprised everyone as she came from behind to beat overwhelming favourite, Jo Ryding in the final round of the Salomon Xscape Indoor Series.  Wigman's coach, Steve Edwards, admitted afterwards that he had a feeling that the work that Wigman has been putting in over the summer would pay off soon.  How right he was!  Ryding held a lead after the first of 0.17 over Wigman with Kayleigh Hill sitting in third.  These three held a comfortable lead over fourth place (Hannah Parker).  The second run saw Wigman overtake Ryding in a time that would have placed her in the top ten overall of the men's race!  David Ryding upheld the Ryding family honour as he held off the challenge of a determined Tom Francis, Jai Geyer and Joe Ogden.

This series has been a breath of fresh air and despite many of the races clashing with other summer races, this series is the future of summer racing.  One mother commented after the race that "Plastic is dead, long live indoor snow," and this was after having driven up from south Wales to Castleford!  With clashes with dry slope races for 2006 being kept to a minimum (none of the Grand Prix's clash at present), this series will go from strength to strength!  With many of the brightest stars racing, this is a great opportunity for racers of all ages to pit themselves against each other, something that does not happen on snow!

In the age group races, Jai Geyer, David Ryding and Tom Francis took the J1, J2 and senior victories.  Francis's victory saw him take the £100 cash first prize along with a pair of skis from Salomon and a 38 inch high trophy!  Up to the last round, Alan Pickles and Neil McQuoid had also been in with a shout for the Senior age group but neither could match Francis on the day: Pickles trailed in 6th and McQuoid a very poor 13th!  The old legs of McQuoid could not match the athleticism of the youngsters!  With Joe Ogden taking 5th overall, second in the Junior 1 age group, he also managed to secure the age group award receiving the same as Tom Francis and also walked off as the Series Winner.  Matthew Thompson and Blair Laidlaw took the children 1 and children 2 race victories in the men's race.

In the female race, Emma Wigman took the Junior 2 spoils while Hannah Parker the Junior 1, Danielle Polley the Children 2 and Abbie Macey the Children 1 race victories.  At the prize giving, one racer was over heard to be upset that she had not won when she saw the quality of prizes being given to the winners, she then went on to say that she would be doing the whole series next year as she wanted one of the trophies! 

Abbie Macie was followed home by Alessia Thomas Jackson and Olivia Parker in the Children 1 girls race.  Matthew Thompson came home ahead of Dan Evans and Ali Kuwall in the boys race.

Danielle Polley came home ahead of fellow Scot Rachel Tinkler and Heidi Parker in third.  Blair Laidlaw showed fellow Scot Cameron Gunn  the way home with Torquey's Jack Chew in third in the age group.

Junior 1 saw Hannah Parker take the spoils ahead of Lauren Cadman and Harri Gordon Lee in third.  Behind Jai Geyer and Joe Ogden in the boys race came TJ Baldwin. Both Geyer and Ogden showed that they are capable of beating the triple champion from Meribel at the British Children's Championship and should take great heart from this into the winter, for Baldwin he must learn to focus on the matter in hand and not the outside distractions if he is to progress further this winter!

The top three overall, Wigman, Ryding and Hill all came from the Junior 2 age group in the girls! In the boys race, David Ryding took top spot ahead of Michael Furness and Hugh Wilson.

Kerry Turnock took the Senior and Masters victory and was followed home by Carrie Walsh and Cathy Beck in the ladies!  Tom Francis took the men's victory ahead of David Hatcher and Alan Pickles.  In the Masters, there were victories in masters 1 for Neil McQuoid ahead of Andrew Hjortt and Gary Connery, Masters 2 for John Williams ahead of Jim Gibb and Keith Birchell took victory in Masters 3.

Many thanks to all the sponsors, Salomon, Xscape in  particular for getting this series off the ground.  These races are the future for summer racing and racing in general - FIS are holding Europa Cup level races this winter in Holland and Germany and are looking to expand further! The slopes may be short but at least they are closer to real snow than dendix (or heavens forbid ........)

Double headers at Milton Keynes, Castleford and Glasgow next year....see you there!

For results please click here