The dry slope season has started with the opening Club National at Pembrey last weekend, some of Britain’s greatest young stars are ready to show what they can do on the grass roots circuit.
The next races are on April 29 with the RTR Club National at Silksworth and the Inter-regional taking place the following day, as the North-West team look to defend their title.
Joshua Price will look to kick start his defence of the GBR Overall Male winner on Welsh turf with the first two races of the series getting underway in Llandudno on May 20, a slope where the Cardiff star finished in runner up position three times last season. He will look to go one place better to kick-start his campaign in 2023.
That will not be an easy challenge for the Welshman as he will have to compete against some of the rising stars on the scene. Alex Penneck from Essex Ski Club emerged as one of the top skiers in the game last year with his aggressive yet dynamic style, taking the All England title at just 15 years old.
It was Joe Thompson from Norfolk who took the men’s zero points award, becoming the highest ranked male in the country, after two impressive back-to-back wins in the Welsh and British Championships in Llandudno.
Essex’s Anna Sarkar got the zero points award for the females after a very closely contested second place in the All England behind Emily Evans and victory in the British Championships. Sarkar was hard-fought all season by the Putman sisters, with Daisy and Abigail finishing one and two respectively in the overall GBR series standings.
Sarkar is set to miss the season through an ACL injury so we can expect a new winner of the zero points award in 2023.
This year’s All England will be held at Norfolk on August 26, while racing will make the much-anticipated return to Pontypool for the Welsh and British Championships.
However, this year, Pontypool won’t be as we’ve always known it, featuring brand new matting and missing a key accessory – the tree.
With a new generation of skiers coming through we can only imagine there will be fresh faces at the top of the leaderboards, here are Racer Ready’s ones to watch:
Geno Hounsham - The racer from Aldershot made a huge progression last year achieving his first overall podium finish at GBR3 at Pendle, with only the local Youth Olympian Robert Holmes ahead of him. Hounsham was 0.6 seconds clear of third placed Joe Nickson also of Pendle Ski Club. He followed it up in the Welsh Championships with a third-place finish behind Alex Penneck and Joe Thompson.
Erin Higgins – The skier from Pontypool Ski Racing found herself in the mix in several races last year, in a very strong group of skiers, kickstarting her season with a second-place finish in the Snowsport Wales Club National at Pembrey behind Georgia Hyett. Higgins narrowly missed out on the podium in the Welsh Championships just one hundredth of a second off the pace of Daisy Putman. It will be an exciting prospect to see Higgins compete on her home slope this season.
Words Jack Feneley
Picture Racer Ready - Geno Hounsham competing at the Snowsport South race in Aldershot last weekend