Speed Ski End of Season Report

With the final World Cup race of the season in Vars cancelled due to an avalanche, the World Cup rankings were declared earlier in the season than expected, with 5 of the British Team ranked this year.

Nigel Brockton and Colin Urquhart came 16^th and 28^th respectively in the S1 class. In SDH, Benja Hedley repeated his 8^th ranking from last year and Tom Horn came 15^th, and 15 year old newcomer Elliott Capper achieved an impressive 7^th in his first year in the junior category. Full results are below:

World Cup Tour Final Results

S1

16^th Nigel Brockton

28^st Colin Urquhart

Downhill

8^th Benja Hedley

15^th Tom Horn

Downhill Junior

7^th Elliot Capper

All that was left for the season was the World Championships in Verbier, Switzerland. Team GBR welcomed some new arrivals to the sport with Marcus Bointon and Alexandra Main racing in the PoP KL before the main event. Both did admirably with Alexandra even achieving a podium place. The event wasn't quite so successful for Al Machell who took a big fall at the finish at over 100mph. He shattered a ski and dislocated his shoulder unable to race in the World Championship, but his enthusiasm wasn't dented, vowing to come back next season in S1.

GBR had a strong team of 5 racers in SDH for the World Championships, with ex-world champion Marc Poncin coming out of semi-retirement, Yannick Green, Tom Horn and Benja Hedley all racing, as well as newcomer, and ski cross racer Jan Farrell.

Verbier had even installed a terrifying 60 degree ramp from the cable car station in order to break world records, but sadly there wasn't enough snow to try it out. Competition was fierce in the racing, and only Marc and Tom qualified for the top 16 for the semi-final. It was extremely tight with just 0.11 km/h separating 15^th and 18^th place. In the end Marc hit 176.01 km/h and Tom 174.65 km/h, but that wasn't quite quick enough to quite make the final 8. Team GBR had to make do with 4 racers in the top 20.

World Championships - SDH - Final Results

Marc Poncin 13^th

Tom Horn 15^th

Benja Hedley 18^th

Yannick Green 19^th

Jan Farrell 25^th