Amanda Alldridge continued her winning run this summer on the Indoor Circuit as she posted the fastest time on both runs to win the Anglo Welsh Championship race in Manchester at Chill Factore. Alldridge has had a ... great summer with just Nicole Ritchie beating her in the Scottish Indoor Championships earlier this summer. With stern competition in the form of rising Under 18 racers Francesca Lee and Megan Jenkins plus a whole host of racers, Alldridge focussed on maintaining her winning form. Francesca Lee put the marker down for second place and Sophie Ogden held on to third place ahead of Megan Jenkins with Nicole Shering taking fifth.
Amanda Alldridge set the pace on both runs, determined and totally focussed on eeking out every hundredth she could, this was a racer that wanted the win more than anything. The 23 year old University graduate has raced FIS races in the past and explained that she is looking to doing more racing this coming winter as she feels that she has unfinished business on the FIS circuit. On the short Indoor slopes, Alldridge has been a class apart for the majority of the summer and has raised the bar for those wanting to be the best.
If Alldridge was the class act of the field, Francesca Lee has certainly set her cards out with second place. Lee is regularly seen racing on the indoor circuit wearing her race suit and for this she is to be commended. While many would argue what is the point of wwearing a race suit on such a short course, Lee explains that the feeling she gets from replicating what she would race in on snow, is why she wears it. Lee ran Alldridge close on the first run and then on the second she was a whisker away from closing the gap on the older racer.
Sophie Ogden just held off Nicole Shering in the first run by two hundredths on the Richard Lamden set course but struggled a little on the course set by her club coach, Robin Kellen. Ogden held on to take third place overall despite a vastly improved second run by Megan Jenkins. Much is expected from Jenkins this season as she makes the step up in to FIS racing and she was not happy with her first run. On the second run she was not perfect but much improved and managed to overhaul the combined time of Shering and close in on Ogden. Shering as the youngest of the top five finishers put in a great performance and should take encouragement from this performance into the remaining races of the summer and into the winter.
There were age group wins for Shannon Potter (Under 14); Nicole Shering (Under 16); Francesca Lee (Under 18); Sophie Ogden (Under 21) and Amanda Alldridge (Senior)
Results:Â AW 2014 results
Picture: Sophie Ogden on her way to third in the Anglo Welsh Championships at Chill factore. Credit Racer Ready, all rights reserved
More action photos are available on www.racer-ready.ifp3.com