Six hundred and eighty two days after the 2020 English Alpine Championships ended, British Children's racing was back live and happening. The Evolution Children's Championships in Reiteralm kicked off the 2021-2022 season and gave the next generation racers the thrill of butterflies in their stomach from racing. Training is great but ski racing is what they have all been craving over the last 682 days! Racing is back!
Paul Telling and his Team Evolution crew did a great job in getting the races going and along with the Ambition Racing team and athletes from CDC, Apex 2100, Precise Racing, Hemel, ATC, Sandown Park, Bromley, Excel, Dragons, British Ski Academy, MK Ski Racing and a host of international racers, the Evolution Speed Races overcame the problems that local Covid restrictions brought up.
It was not just about getting the racers across Europe but also about getting a TD (Technical Delegate) in place so that the races could count for seed points, remember them? Both Evolution and Ambition have worked hard to make sure that the events would happen. With the British Ski Academy races following on from these, racing is back on the agenda.
With great support from the WSV Pichl-Reiteralm race team, the ambitious programme saw under 10 & Under 12 races of three runs along with Under 14 and Under 16 races. Where there is a will there is a way! The Under 10 and Under 12 racers had been down the stubbies while the older racers did two slalom runs.
Lowri Howie took the fastest girls time and overall in the Under 12 race with Craig Menzies taking the fastest boys time. Sebastien Anthony and Alfie Croft joined Menzies on the podium while Scarlett Mclaughlin and Sylvia Curtis were on the British podium in the girls race on the stubbies course.
Adam Orzel was the fastest British boy in the Under 14 race in sixth place overall ahead of Boden Kelly and Monty Griffin. Ryan Faber and Matthew Butler were the fastest two on the first run but both crashed out on the second run. Orzel poster the second fastest time on the second run.
In the girls Under 14 race, Lucy Howeson was fastest on run one with Isabella Sullivan in third and Madeleine Welsh in fourth overall. The second run saw Alice Beveridge fastest with Howeson second fastest followed by Sullivan. This gave Howeson the Overall win ahead of Sullivan and Alice Whitmore taking third overall.
In the Under 16 girls race, Molly Butler took the race win ahead of Olivia Howeson by a strong margin with Hannah Skinner in third, Katie Saunders in fourth and Ffion Lewis taking fifth.
Fastest on both runs saw Freddie Carrick-Smith take the race win ahead of his twin brother Zak with Ian Menzies taking third among the British racers. Lucas Collyer-Todd took fourth with Indio Whitnell Monk in fifth among the British racers.
Getting the Children racing was the important part of the race. Matters like GB Childrens Team selection and seed points will all come out later.
Emma Carrick-Anderson, one of Britain's leading female racers in the last 25 years and mother of three boys all racing explained the importance of the racing: "It was fantastic to get going again after so long. To get the race butterflies again and for the kids to just be in the start gate doing what they love is just so good. Training is amazing but then as an athlete you want to test yourself again. Thankful to Evolution for getting these races run under these difficult times. Im just gutted that so many aren't able to do what they love right now."
Full results will be up on gbski,.com shortly.
Thank you to Emma Carrick-Anderson for the podium picture. Emma and her husband Phil run Snoworks.com and Emma also runs a LavaVitae consultancy. Click here for more information