St Mary's Calne
Last Friday, the Ski Racing Team left school to attend the much-anticipated British School Girl's Ski Racing Championships in scenic Flaine - the highlight event of the year for our skiers! This year we are celebrating 15 years of competing!
Saturday and Sunday were our training days with Vincent out on the mountains. The girls practiced Giant Slalom (GS) and Slalom, and it was great to see their development during these sessions.
On Monday, the girls competed in the GS and Parallel Slalom. There were 23 schools with 150 competitors attending and the atmosphere was fantastic! The races are separated into registered and unregistered competitors. St Mary's compete in the unregistered section as we compete for fun, whereas the registered section is another level of comeptition, with girls competing that race for Great Britain, Scotland and Australia. They are amazing to watch and it is quite insirational for our pupils to see that level of competition up close.
This year, our A Team was Lieve, Lettie and Arabella while our B Team was Hettie and Bella. On Day One, all the girls raced very well and with confidence and we finished the day with four times. Then it was out for supper, and an early night in order to be feeling fresh for the next day of competition.
Day Two brought the Slalom which can be very tricky. All five girls got down with good times, which was great to see as the conditions were quite tough and we saw quite a few of the registered skiers taking tumbles.
Overall, We had two good days of racing but alas this year wasn't a trophy year, instead it was a year of learning, developing skills and gaining competition experience.
Roll on next year when we can get on the slopes again!
Mrs Natalie Baldwin, PE Teacher