It is great to see racers with smiles and although not all may have got the results that they wanted in the races, the smiles were there at the end of the inaugural Atomic Ambition Championships. The inclusion of International racers from Holland, Poland and Australia was great to see and gave the British racers with aspirations to go on and race in international races, a chance to see how they would fare.
Siena Horton added the second Under 14 Girls race to her list of credentials this season. Fastest time on both runs gave her a comfortable lead over Eleanor Scranage-Harrison for the win. Sophie Foster and Anna Caldwell took third and fourth in the small field.
Oliver Pollitt took the Overall win in the Under 14 Boys race despite not posting the fastest time on either run. Pollitt took the third fastest time in the first race behind Seamus O'Brien and Max Pini and then held on to take the Overall win as O'Brien crashed out and Pini struggled on the second run. Jack Cunningham posted the second-fastest time on the second run but had too much to try and claw back for the win and had to be content with second. Pini dropped down to third after making a mess on the second run. Kaylan Huisman Muro took fourth with Tommy Dade taking fifth place overall. Toby Case posted a convincing fastest second run time but could do no better than sixth overall after a mistake on the first run.
Sarah Woodward added the second Under 16 Girls Slalom in Leogang to her in list of success this season. The Ambition racer took control of the race with a second lead after the first run over Olivia Ward and while Ward pulled some time back, Woodward had enough of a lead to maintain the lead. After a promising first run, Olivia Foster took third place with Abi Bruce in fourth and Shana Danenbergsons in fifth.
The Under 16 Boys was dominated by the International element in the race as Warwick Crawford took the win ahead of Noah Krabshuis and Connor Leggett. Dexter Lee was the fastest of the British racers in fourth place followed by Matthew Heginbotham and Ewan Robertson.
Matilda O'Brien made it a clean sweep in the Ambition Under 12 races with victory ahead of Lauren Bloom and Cate Dance. In the boys races, Jack Upton took his first win ahead of Zachery Metheringham and Lucas Ellis in third place.
To the coach that mentioned when leaving the Anglo-Scottish races in Les Houches that he was surprised that the Ambition races were being used for selection for the British Children's Team this year, the races had some great racers taking part and he need not have been worried about the comparison between the athletes in the two sets of races.
Next year it is being talked about having the Anglo-Scottish races and the Ambition races on at the same time.
A new slope but some great courses and great organisation!
Full Results