Saturday 14th May saw the return to Sunderland for the annual RTR club national. The sun was shining, meaning a pleasant change from typical northeast weather, but a dry and sticky slope. Luckily, course setter Bennett was generous with a fast course, which challenged racers to generate as much speed as possible while maintaining an early line in some tight turns.
The morning saw some very close racing with less 0.10 seconds separating the top three men (Van Bruegel, Witts and Penneck) and a joint first place for Holmes and Chapman in the women. The gates were then switched to stubbies for some exciting minis racing before lunch, which saw McLuaghlin of RTR and Harwood of Rossendale take the wins.
Pressure was on for the older racers after lunch for the intense third run. In the battle for the women’s title, Chapman was first to ski out of the joint leaders equalling her time from the morning and taking the win. Holmes (Pendle) and Putman (Aldershot) took 2nd and 3rd. The leading man from run one and two failed to perform under the pressure of the third run, allowing Penneck of Essex to step and take his best ever club national result with Deem (Midlands) and Witts (Pendle) rounding out the podium.
Report by Chloe Chapman
Pictures by John Lonsdale
Full results on GBSki.com