26 March 2005

Last week's The British Land National Ski Championships were hampered by the weather, but still saw some excellent racing.

Mickel and Alcott win Downhill
The downhill followed the form book, as World Cup stars Finlay Mickel and Chemmy Alcott collected the Men's and Women's titles, there were encouraging and inspiring performances from many of the younger British competitors, seeking to emulate the various successes of the leading duo.

Mickel finished just 0.86 of a second ahead of Ed Drake, who is on his first year full time on The British Land Alpine Ski Team. At 18 years old Drake was delighted with his second place. am Thorburn (18 Strathaven, South Lanarkshire) took second 1.42 seconds behind Alcott with 2004's overall British women's champion Lynn Sharp (19, Glasgow).

Baxter (Jr) and Alcott (again) take the GS

Top seeds Noel Baxter and Chemmy Alcott upheld their status and won the men's and women's Giant Slalom races respectively. The weather conditions recently had meant that over ten tonnes of salt had been mixed into the snow down the course in order to make the snow hard enough to allow a competitive race.

Leuzinger wins first title, Alcott wins third!
With Alain Baxter not racing in the Slalom due to an injured back this was a chance for the younger racers to stake their claims for the future.

James Leuzinger captured his first British Senior Slalom Title in the sun on the Meribel slopes. With Sebastien Amiez and Sebastien Auer providing strong local opposition yet neither were able to match the combined time posted by Leuzinger. Auer had lead after the first run as the first three were separated by a mere tenth of a second.

The Women's race was won by Chemmy Alcott, completing a clean sweep of the three races that took place this week. Alcott won the women's race convincingly from Ingrid Bott (France) who was just ahead of Lynn Sharp.

With the Slalom concluding the Championships, the non-finish of Noel Baxter in the slalom handed the Overall Title to Finlay Mickel in the Men's race while having won all three races, Chemmy Alcott won the women's title and with it the Victrix Ludorum.

Both the Super G races were cancelled as the warm temperature took its toll on the snow conditions.

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