Emily Evans likes the Norwich slope and it is the only slope outside of Bromley, where she coaches, that she races during the summer. For the fifth time, she left the slope with the All England Title with her as she produced a dominant display that had ... the rest of the racers fighting for second place before the race had even begun! Hannah Bozier took second place as she tried hard to defend the title that she had won last year in Gloucester, with Georgia Hallett racing for the first time this summer since her exams had finished to take third place. Hallett was at the front of a group of racers in places three down to six separated by just fifteen hundredths of a second! Alex Bullock, another coming back into the racing after exams, took fourth with Sarah Lambden in fifth and Alice Hales in sixth.
While Evans dominated the race on both runs and gave the rest of the Women's field an idea of the standard of skiing that was required to win the All England Title, the racing behind was tight. While exams have meant that rarely have all the main protagonists in the women's race scene been at the same race this summer, this did not stop them from all attacking and looking for every hundredth they could squeeze out of their skis. Evans has the natural ability and the feel for her skis that enabled her to cut vital hundredths off her time. While this was the fifth time that she has won the All England all have been won at Norfolk!
Evans was a very accomplished racer on snow just a few years ago but took the decision to quit racing and has been working for Ambition the last couple of seasons. During the summer she has been training young racers at Bromley and Chatham, the club she races for. Despite only racing at Norwich during the summer, it seems she has lost little of her speed since stopping racing. It would be great to see her racing a little more often during the season to give other racers the opportunity to measure their progress against her.
Sadly while the quality of the racing at the top end of the field was great to watch the lack of depth in the  field meant that this was the smallest field of female racers in the last ten years with only 49 female racers taking to the start for the first run. If the race is to hold its position as the most appealing and prestigious race on the summer calendar then something needs to be looked at.
There were age group wins for Lois Jackson (Under 14), Millie Jackson (Under 16), Isabella Hathway (Under 18), Emily Evans (Under 21) and Alice Hales (Senior) with Melissa Sampson winning the Masters age group.
Results:
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Picture: Emily Evans on her way to winning her fifth All England Title. Credit Racer Ready, all rights reserved
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