Sport: Skiing
Year Group: Various

British School Girls Skiing Championships – Flaine

Emily Hopkins (Yr 11), Sarah Williams (Yr 11) and Megan Allman (Yr 12) travelled to Flaine in France to compete in the 52nd British School Girls Skiing Championships. After a successful and enjoyable training session on Sunday, the girls were up for the giant slalom on Monday morning. Emily Hopkin was first to compete for the Cowbridge team. Emily had just competed in the Welsh Alpine Championships where she achieved gold and bronze medals in the giant slalom on the final day and finished 3rd overall Welsh Girl. Emily’s first run was 55.88 which left her in 10th place overall after the first run. In the second run Emily posted another first time of 54.05, 5 th overall for the second run and a combination of times from run 1 and run 2 finished with a time of 1.49.93 which was 7th overall and 4 th in her age group Junior 1. There were 178 finishers. This was a fantastic achievement for Emily.

Megan Allman was second to compete for Cowbridge; unfortunately Megan fell on her first run, hiked back up the mountain to complete the gate and finished with a time of 1 min 30.42. On Megan’s second run a determined and gusty run after the fall saw Megan complete in a magnificent time of 58.04. This was a total time of 2.28.46 and 101 st out of 178. This is an excellent result for Megan, competing as a non racer who does not train just enjoys skiing! Well done!

Sarah Williams was the third to race for Cowbridge. Sarah posted two similar times for both run 1 and 2 with 1 min 2.67 and 1 min 1.65 respectively with a total of 2.04.32 and finishing 47th overall out of 178. Again another excellent performance 10 places higher than in 2009. As a team Emily and Sarah’s final results were taken as the team points where they came 10th out of 46 teams finishing 8 places better than in 2009. A great achievement!

On Monday afternoon the team took part in the parallel slalom where Emily started the race; once finished the course Megan went followed by Sarah (relay race). 2 teams compete against each other. Cowbridge had a by in the first round and faced Abbey Gate College in the second round. After a great ski by Emily, Megan kept up the first pace to allow Sarah to finish in 1st. In the 3rd round Cowbridge faced Surbington High B Team. Emily gave the team a good shot by finishing first but unfortunately Surbington having two Great Britain skiers were too strong for Cowbridge, Cowbridge were then knocked out. Surbington B team went on to qualify for the final where they faced their A team who beat them to the title.

On Wednesday the girls took part in the slalom. On the first run Emily achieved 45.17 which was 10th fastest in run 1 and 46.34 in the second run with a total time of 1min 31.51 finishing in an excellent 12th place overall. Sarah finished her first run in 48.41 and her second run in 50.28 with an overall time of 1 min 38.69 finishing in a superb 20th place overall. Megan was hot on Sarah’s heels finishing run one in 50.53 and run two in 50.69 with an overall time of 1 min 41.22 to finish in 30th place, again another excellent performance for a recreational skier. There were 140 skiers finishing this race. In the team event for the slalom Emily and Sarah’s times were used and they finished in an incredible 7th place!

Combining the giant slalom and slalom team rankings together, Emily finished 8th overall and 5th in her age group Junior 1. This is a fantastic achievement beating many international racers. Sarah also achieved a high ranking of 27th and Megan in 60th place out of 113 finishers. As a team Cowbridge finished 8th beating teams such as Aiglan, an English school based in the Alps, Millfield & Cheltenham Ladies College. In first place was Kandahar a club not a school with Surbington High and Reeds school beating Cowbridge who are renowned for their skiing accomplishments.

Although the girls did not reach the podium for their skiing ability, they did receive a runners up prize for a quiz ‘mind trap’ they competed in and answered 11 correct questions out of 12!!!

Overall the girls enjoyed their experience in Flaine showing their true grit and determination and competed well against the best skiers in Britain and beyond.

Well done and good luck for next year.