Charlotte Holmes of Pendle won the All England Girls title at Gloucester. The girls race consisted of two runs through one stubby course with the fastest run to count.
Local Gloucester coach Richard Lambden set the first course of the day. The course had an early hairpin at the top of the course followed by a few tight offset turns going into a verticalli over the flat middle section of the slope. The rest of the course had a relentless corridor of gates that varied in width and distance.
First up was Amber Fennell of Midlands who was vying for top spot in the under 10s category and challenging the U12 girls too. Her first run saw her battle through a tough set with a few mistakes but still managed a good time of 23.64 seconds.
Next in the starting area was Jolie Hoffman-Little. A quick top section gave her momentum into the flat section but the tricky last offsets were slight problem for the Gloucester racer. Nonetheless she took the lead with an impressive time of 22.70.
Pendle racer Holmes was the next girl to tackle the All England course. She flowed smoothly through the top section and navigated the tricky offsets towards the bottom with relative ease. She took the lead from Hoffman-Little with a time of 22.02.
Niamh Thompson of Snowtrax slotted into fourth with a time of 25.03 and Lauren Bloom of Weston County unfortunately skied out the tough All England course on the first run. Still all to play for going into the final run.
Fennell learnt from her first run to ski a more rounded line through the mid section to ski the final part of the course smoothly. The Midlands racer improved her time with a 22.99 furthering her lead in the U10 category and closing the gap on the two U12s in front of her.
Hoffman-Little also had a much better run. She visibly looked quicker along the mid flat section and this was reflected in a better time of 22.13. This wasn’t quite enough to beat Holmes’ first run time.
Next up was Holmes who was looking to improve on her first run to further her lead. Unfortunately she made a mistake and had to hike to complete her final run. The Pendle racer was still in the lead but had to wait for the rest of the pack to finish to see if she had won.
Niamh Thompson also improved her time with a 24.14 that was on course to a third place on the U12 podium. However, Bloom made up for her first run ski out with a fantastic run. Quick feet and smooth turns helped the U12 skier get a time of 22.06.
This meant Holmes took home the title of U12 and girl overall winner by 0.04 seconds ahead of Bloom in second place and Hoffman-Little in third. The top three were separated by 0.11 seconds in the end, which was spectacular to watch to the very end.
In the U10s Amber Fennell won convincingly ahead of Renee Mills of Gloucester with Kitty-Jay Caldwell of Snowtrax in third.
Full results