Three years ago Charlotte Holmes won the Under 12 British title at Manchester inc commanding fashion and this year she returned to win the Overall and Under 16 title with the fastest time on both runs. Pushed by Olivia Ward on the first run, Holmes showed her determination to destroy the rest of the field on the second run to take the Overall win with a combined time that would have seen her place 12th in the Men's race. Olivia Ward placed second in her first race in eleven months with Ellie Jackson raising her game on the second run to finish in third. Holly McKey and Amy Stokoe rounded out the top five finishers.
With the courses set by the Scottish heard coach, Mark Vinter and Carl Ryding, there was plenty for the racers to think about. A mere hundredth of a second separated Holmes, winner of the Anglo Welsh the day before with ex British Team racer, Olivia Ward, after the first run with Robyn Walker sitting in third and then three racers separated by just five hundredths: Holly McKey ahead of Ellie Jackson and Amy Stokoe. It was all to race for on the second run.
With six to go it was Ailsa Hay, winner of the GBR race at Hillend earlier in the summer, that lead, posting the fastest time to that point. Jackson son was next down and she obliterated Hay's time by six tenths of a second, showing real fight and determination to try and make the podium.
Stokoe was next down and could not live with the pace set by Jackson and went into second. This was turning into a great advert for indoor racing.
Fifth fastest from the first run, Holly McKey had five hundredths on Jackson from the first run and knew she had to go fast. McKey has benefitted hugely from winning a bursary from the BSA in 2018 and has shown real belief in her racing since spending time with the British Ski Academy. A good run was needed but she lost time on the flat section near the bottom and saw her advantage ebb away, finishing seven hundredths behind Jackson and dropping to second on the run at that point.
Next up was Robyn Walker. Walker knew it was all or bust on the second run as she aimed for a higher place on the podium. It is a fine line between skiing for a place and skiing to get better and trying too hard. Sadly for Walker she just tipped over the edge and lost a bundle of time that saw her cascade down the leader board. She will have learnt from this experience and knows that she can fight with the top racers.
This left Ward and then Holmes at the start.
Ward was first down and she lost time by not being as clean as either Jackson or McKey but had enough in hand from the first run to stay in front of them overall.
This left Holmes at there start as the fastest racer from the first run. She held a four tenths advantage over Jackson from the first run but a slender two hundredths over Ward. Where Ward had lost time, Holmes was clean and posted the fastest time of the day by a female to take the win by almost three quarters of a second. Impressive stuff!
The age groups were won by Christina Dow (Under 14, 11th Overall), Charlotte Holmes (Under 16, Race Winner), Ellie Jackson (Under 18, 3rd Overall), Olivia Ward (Under 21, Runner Up) and Anna Dedecjus (Masters).
Full results
action shots from the racing are on www.racerready.zenfolio.com
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