Back at it for GDHLers with a tough SL last Sunday. Details follow, but here's what's up for this long weekend.
- For those getting an early start on the weekend, Friday training is GS at 9:30 and 1:00. Contact Laurel to register. Alternately, have morning GS training and an afternoon race on Big John at the Track 3 Friends and Family Race Day. Full details at the end of this message.
- Nine week gate training is SL on Saturday at 9:30 and again at 1:00 in place of the usual Sunday session. Scheduled for Venture. Check the board at the National chair for any update.
- Adult tech training also has two sessions on Saturday. Meet Allan at the National chair at 9:30 or 1:00.
- Interclub is SL at Caledon at 1:00 Saturday. Turnout is a bit light, so there's an opportunity to make your debut and get involved in a great variation on the adult racing theme. Contact Taylor Simms-Brown.
- Finally, the GDHL race is our final SL of the year, starting at 10 am Sunday, with inspection from 9:15 to 9:45. It will be a long one, starting from the Millennium gate, running down the track to the top of Venture, then making a hard left and doing short radius the entire length of Venture. We've asked that the finish line be down low, so look for something in the neighborhood of this past Sunday's finish on Millennium. Bids for the oxygen concession are now open!
Race Recap
Sunday's SL on Millennium saw Jayne Clarke take advantage of winning bib 10 to post a time that wasn't seriously challenged until Brittany Stainer cut over a second off wearing bib 72. Samantha Higgins, Kate Veer and Sarah Latimer also posted strong first runs and at one point the live timing showed women holding almost all of the top places in the race, with Jeff Craig being the lone male representative. Brittany, Jayne, Sam, Kate and Sarah ended up 9th (career GDHL best), 13th, 19th, 22nd and 28th, respectively, while Jeff ended up 15th. Jeff Sutherland in bib 93 eventually overtook Brittany with what turned into a fifth place finish, then Greg Cavers knocked almost four seconds off Jeff's time, with a characteristically strong showing in a difficult SL course. Ultimately though, it was the dominant youths of the year, Chris Barber and Alec Libert, who sliced another 2 and 1.5 seconds, respectively, off Greg's time, to push him back to third, and decided that a second run wasn't necessary (an agreement in restraint of competition?). Full results are here. Other notable showings in a sparser than usual field included Alex (6th) and Andrew Jansons, Allan LaChance (overcoming another case of ski dropsy to finish 8th), Alistair Athey, Ron Statler, Dean Beallor (continuing on the comeback road), Paul Henschel (finding inspiration in becoming a Snow School instructor), Tom Cronin (continuing a steady climb in his first GDHL season), Brad Sproule (I need a rerun on the pic of the two Brads) and Elspeth Gaukrodger.
Chris Barber has a chance to clinch the season's overall title in this coming Sunday's long SL. Only Alec Libert has a chance to beat him overall. On the women's side, Brittany Stainer has taken a one point lead over Jayne Clarke and needs a 26th place or better to improve her best four scores, while Jayne will look to discard a 32nd that resulted from a first run DNF in the Comet SL. Pen has a pretty healthy lead in the team standings over Birches, with Millennium close behind in third despite carrying 90 points in no-show penalties. National is fourth and has room for improvement if some inconsistent results can be dropped.
Sunday spectators included Carrie Grinter-Lenauskas, Suzanne Sutherland and their temporarily attentive Bernese mountain dogs.
Meanwhile, at the World Winter Masters Games in Quebec, Craigleith's Dave Jackson took a gold medal in his age class in GS, while Tiana Boyman managed not only age group gold and silver in SL and GS but took bronze in the open women's parallel SL.
Meanwhile, at the FIS World Championships, Phil Brown and the other members of the Canadian team won a silver medal in the team parallel slalom event. See here for story and video, including footage of Phil's finals matchup with Marcel Hirscher.
Also Ahead
- The Club's racing fundraiser is up on Saturday evening the 21st. Rumour has it that GDHL will be contributing to a super one-stop-to-greatness auction item.
- The GDHL closing dinner will be on the following Saturday, the 28th. Watch for details of ticket sales soon.
- Get ready for the NZ Foundation Dawn to Dusk and Dusk to Dawn events on 14 March. See the video below.
And don't forget to check out the Track 3 details below. See you at the Club for a great long weekend!
James Mathers
