On Sunday 16 September, the Eltham College U19A, U19B, U16, U14 and U12 Ski teams competed in the English Schools Ski Association qualifiers competition at Chatham Ski Slope. The pressure was on as there were places up for grabs for the English finals held in Norwich in October with a chance to go through to the British finals. The day started with a power outage in the local area, meaning the U14s and U12s had to walk up to the top of the slope in order to get their practice runs in. Thankfully the power returned and with the ski lifts brought back to life, the competition proper got underway.
The U12 Team (Tom K, Tommy H, Kayden G-J and Seb Anthony) were first up and all skied with the confidence and ability beyond their experience. Seb particularly impressed with the quickest times in the team despite being the youngest member of the Ski Team at the competition.
The U14A team consisting of Jonathan K, Adam C, Fred B, and Joshua F all skied with the precision and skill they’ve shown in training and all put in solid performances ensuring that all runs were clean and each boy was able to match, if not beat their first time in their second run.
The boys in the U16 team made up of Alex L, Fergus B, Luke M and Theo A were spurred on by the talent showed by the younger teams and determined to match their achievement. They pushed themselves hard and were able to record competitive times across both runs.
Both of the U19 teams were mainly skiing up on their usual age category, but they didn’t let this intimidate them and were able to show their prowess on a dry slope. Both the U19A (Pietro V-V, Liam D, Matthew M and Diaco A) and the U19B (Ben H, Daragh M, Tom W and Kyle M) put in great times in both runs with Diaco and Ben both achieving sub 18s times – amongst the fastest racers of the day. Diaco also set a course record for the day on his final run with a time of 16.82s.
A big thank you to all of the parents who made it down for the day to support the team. Another great performance by the Eltham College Ski team who will find out by the end of the week if their impressive efforts on the day were enough to secure places in the British Finals in Norwich.
