The Eltham College Ski tea had a brilliant start to this half term, after almost 2 years of no racing our boys and girls returned to the sport with outstanding results. The team now has 31 ski racers all eager to compete and show the strength and potential of the Ski Team.
ESSKIA – ENGLISH SKI SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION
On the 19 September 23 students competed at the ESSKIA Qualifiers at Chatham Snowsports Centre, under the great guidance of their very experienced ski racing coach Miss Emily Evans all students who participated did an amazing job. From this qualifier 3 teams made it through to the English finals, a national event against schools from all around the country. All those who participated in the qualifiers really enjoyed the chance to be back racing. Congratulations to Lily and Juliette our first ever female ski racers at Eltham and the pioneers for the team.
The English finals, took place on the 8th of October and 12 students travelled to Norwich to compete at the national event. Our students were up against some tough competition but throughout the weekend the Eltham team showed great determination and excellent racing. The U14’s team (Tommy, Zach, Sam and Alex), the U16’s team (Adam, Boden, Joshua and Liam) and the U19’s team (Theo, Alex, Luke and Fred) were selected for the Norfolk Ski Centre. Our U14’s team started the day on Saturday with some great racing but unfortunately a few mistakes in the challenging course left our racers sadly disqualified.
The Under 16’s raced incredibly well against some very tough competition and some very experienced racers. They secured secured 2nd place overall, an outstanding result for the team, a big well done to Adam, Boden, Joshua and Liam for making the podium and racing so well. Our U19’s team proved that their hard work over the years by securing 1st place for their age group. The Sunday saw the open championship which gave a chance for the U16 and U19 team compete again against all age groups for a chance to qualify for the British Finals in Llandudno. The boys managed to again secure some wins with Adam, Boden, Joshua and Liam finishing 5th overall and Theo, Alex, Luke and Fred finishing 2nd overall. A special mention to Adam who was the 4th fastest racer of the day on Sunday. Well done to these two teams for progressing onto the British finals in Llandudno, Wales in late November.
KENT SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIP
On the 3 October 25 students competed at the Kent Schools Championship run by Precise Racing. The team were once again up against some tough competition. Our Secondary Senior Team (Fergus, Fred and Hugo) took away gold unfortunately the 2nd secondary team (Luke, Alex, Adam and Theo) unfortunately had some errors on the challenging course and were unable to place, but a great effort overall from our older racers.
Our Secondary Junior Team (Boden, Josh and Liam) secured 1st in their age group closely followed by our 2nd Secondary Junior Team (Zach, Alex and Tommy), our 3rd secondary team (Mert, Theo and Seb) again were challenged by the course and were unable to place but a big well done to everyone who raced. Our Secondary Junior Mixed team (Lily, Rohan and Arthur) took away 2nd place in their age group a fantastic effort for a new group of racers. Our Primary Senior team took 2nd place (Oscar, George, Harry and Santi), yet another outstanding result for Eltham College. A special mention to Kevin and Jonathon who competed individually for their first race ever.
In the individual results Eltham College took away all podium places in the Secondary Junior category with Joshua in 3rd, Fred in 2nd and Boden in 1st place. In the Secondary Senior Category Adam took away 2nd Place for his age group. Overall individual results Adam came 2nd and Boden came 6th.
The teams all competed in the mixed schools Dual Slalom, some of our Eltham racers happened to be involved in some more podium wins including Oscar, Hugo, Adam, Seb, Fergus, Theo. A big well done to all the Ski racers.
We are excited to see what the remainder of the season has in store for the Eltham Ski Team!
