Aldershot's James Sieber won a close call race beating his coach Jimmy Greenwood to win the first overall of the Snowsport South Series. Two hundredths of a second separated the pair's fastest times, but it was the England team racer Sieber who took top honours. The race saw a fantastic turn out with 155 skiers competing on the day, which consisted of a very high level of racing throughout the event.
Snowsport South has always tried to improve young skiers, and this year the region wanted to trial the stubby courses that are being introduced for the under 10 racers at national level. The first age group to take on the new stubby format were the under 7s with Sofia Qualtrough (Berkshire) and Angus Ross (Snowtrax) finishing on top of the podium.
Olivia Roderick (Snowtrax) and Brecon Prior (Sandown) showed some impressive skiing to win the 7-8s category. Rebecca Vernon (Sandown) won the girls 9-10s in great style, whilst Toby Case (Aldershot) finished in the top 10 overall, whilst winning the boy 9-10s in doing so. Slalom gates were then brought out for the 11-12s as Nicole Shering (Snowtrax) continued her impressive form from last year to win her group, whilst Richard Trew (Bromley) was the fastest in his in a very competitive category. Lauren Cooper (Southampton) and Craig Speed (Aldershot) both topped the 13-14s with great times. Both the male and female overall winners came from the 15-16s age group with Jenny Davies (Aldershot) and Sieber (Aldershot) stealing the show. Nikkie Vale (Chatham) and Will Reader (Aldershot) put in great performances to top the 17-19s age group. Greenwood (Aldershot) narrowly missed out on the overall but topped the male 20-30s groups, whilst Natasha Tanner-Wood (Snowtrax) won the female equivalent. In the 30-49s Noni Stocker (Snowtrax) and in-form Simon Bannister(Aldershot) put in great performances to win their groups. The age group places were rounded off with the 50+ categories as Sally Bonneywell (Aldershot) and Graham Naylor (Aldershot) won their groups.
In the club team events Aldershot grabbed a hat trick of wins in the club team events on their home slope. Vice Chairman Brian Davies summed up the day “A great start to the season for all those involved, with great numbers on the start list.” “It was great to see our main sponsor Salomon making such a big impact on our region with 5 of the top ten all racing on their skis, showing their support has had a great deal to do with our success in recent years.” “I look forward to the next races in the series, with Bowles up next!”
For more info visit: http://www.srsa.org.uk/home or https://www.facebook.com/SnowsportSouth