After the excitement of the World Championships, the focus for British Ski Racing fans is now back on the domestic scene and first up are the next generation of stars in the making. Some of the best children on the British ski racing scene are in Bormio this week and the first race for them was the Super G. After a day of training down the slope used by the men on the World Cup, this was the first Super G of the British calendar. This was the time for it all to get serious. With the snow grippy and the sun out, the cold air was the main hindrance to the fast racers. The Super G was set by Scott Bryson from the British Ski Academy and the course gave the racers plenty to think about with some adverse cambers and a mix of flats, steeps and aggressive snow.
Megan Jenkins put the disappointment of not being able to race in the race last year behind her in taking the win. Jenkins is a talented racer and is benefitting from a talented group of coaches and racers at The BSA pushing her and others along. Jenkins used her number, 3, to good effect to attack the course. despite the light not being great, Jenkins carved a strong fast line and Anna Henderson was the best of the rest. Henderson had suffered a crash in the training runs and admitted after the race that it had been touch and go whether she would race at all. In the end the Ambition trained racer was just under two tenths behind Jenkins in second. Issy Taylor took third in the race, just one hundredth ahead of Erika Hegginbotham. Hegginbotham is another of the BSA trained racers that has been steadlily improving over the years and should go far in the sport. Marion Legais and Honor Clissold shared fifth spot.
In the boys race there was a whole heap of poor technical decisions coming through the middle section as a number of the racers failed to head the advice of coaches and over rotated and subsequently crashed out on the their inside ski. As more racers went down the course the course did get bumpier and this threw a number of racers around and bindings ejected their racers. Robert Poth, the pre-race favourite was one of the racers to suffer this end to their day. Iain Innes put the knowledge gained from training runs to good use and posted a time three tenths ahead of Jordan Fellows. Fellows was a little despondent after his last set of British races at the Anglo Scottish races in January and this was a chance for him to gain some retribution against the clock. Fellows took second comfortably with Zak Vinter and Oliver Davis sharing third place just over a second behind Innes.
The younger girls age group saw Alicja Krahelski increase her growing reputation with victory in the Under 14 age group ahead of Abigail Bruce and Isabella Colley; all three in the top 15 finishers.
Angus Wills added another win to his growing victory cabinet for the season ahead of Nathan Breese and Toby Deighton. Breese has a lot of talent yet at times loses focus on the racing due to other interests: he definitely has the ability.
The talent of the racers at this age group is matched by their enthusiasm. If the pathway for the sport can be agreed on and followed, then the results achieved by the likes of Robert Poth in the Czech Republic and other members of the Children's team, will be more regular. After a days rest, the Under 14 and 16 age groups will return to racing on Wednesday with the new format of age group racing coming into effect. The boys of both age group and girls of both age group used to race together; the new concept is that the Under 14 age group, both girls and boys will race together in the same format: two runs, two races while the under 16 age group will race in a format that will prepare them more for the FIS races that they will soon be entering: Two runs but with the combined time of both runs counting towards the result.