It was a glorious first weekend of the "regular season" for Craigleith adult racing. More details below. But first, who is the accountant and who is the salesman?
Byron Darlison and JF Courville of the GDHL Committee at the Calcutta
This Weekend's Schedule
For those with limited time to peruse, here's what you need to know:
- SL training at 9:30 and 1:00 Friday on Comet. Contact Laurel Armstrong to register.
- Nine week gate training (fully subscribed) is doing SL on Venture at 9:30 Saturday and at 1:00 Saturday in place of the Sunday session
- GDHL race is SL on Comet at 10:00 Sunday. Inspection starts about 9:15 and ends about 9:45.
- Nine week adult tech is at 9:30 on each of Saturday and Sunday. Meet at the National chair, or on Sunday meet Justin Fogarty at 9:15 in the Snow School area on the second floor of the South Lodge for some preliminary discussion.
Next question, will long and lean beat short and strong?
Craig Shibley and JF
GDHL Race 1
As it turns out, not this time (0.07 difference, in the midst of a group of 16 with times of 38 something.) But what a great start - 99 skiers and 3 snowboarders started Sunday morning's GS on Big John, and your committee's goal of attracting more young racers was more than realized. Results are in the GDHL database here. Alec Libert, Trevor Jackson, Ian Malcolm and Phil Ruffolo, all 20-something newcomers to GDHL, finished 1, 3, 4 and 5, with only Scott McLorie able to put down the fastest second run of the day to grab second place and salvage something for the returning racers. Your rankings committee anticipated strong results from Alec, Trevor and Phil, who were known as members of the big group of really fast kids born in 1989. (They won the Mackenzie League championship half a lifetime ago.) However, scouting reports for Ian were a bit dated, and it appears he has grown bigger and faster since he was 14! Doug Deeks marked his first GDHL race in some time with a fine 6th place, while Trent Winstone surprised Jeff Sutherland as the first of the 50-somethings in 7th (also taking an emphatic early lead in the Trent vs Randy race). Eric Gin had a strong debut in 20th, while Brittany Stainer was the fastest female racer of the day and came close to beating past champion John Banfield on his return after a hiatus of some years. (But I don't think John has dusted off his race suit with a view to finishing in the 20's, so heads up!) Fellow Level 4 instructors Leslie Morgan and Lisa Warll look set for a tight rivalry, finishing only a few hundredths apart on each run, while Jeff Craig, Ted Morgan (up 23 spots), Rob Cassels, Will Andrew (up 31), Mack Barford, Rob Bruce, Dougie Craig (up 22), Jamie Coulter, Dave MacDonald (up 22), Craig Harrison, Elsbeth Gaukrodger (up 23), Brian Athey and Anne Mathers were all returning racers who substantially exceeded the rankings they have based on last year's results. Brad McMullen appears set to challenge Ian Malcolm for the mis-ranked newcomer of the year award. Finally, Bob Callow, having made a splash at the Calcutta for the last couple of years, made his ski racing debut as the second oldest GDHL participant and one of the few to have a faster second run on the day.
Your committee noted that some of the young guns are a bit prone to the dreaded DNF in slalom races, but they are exciting to watch, so see you on Comet Sunday!
Ted is more of a GS guy! How about you?
Interclub Results
The new version of the Interclub series kicked off with a GS Sunday afternoon at Craigleith. Visiting teams were Georgian Peaks, Alpine and Caledon. Thanks to a fine recruiting effort by Chris Shipton, subbing for captain Taylor Simms-Brown, Craigleith scored a solid 25 point victory over the Peaks, with Alpine third. Results are on our website here. (Details of interclub racing are here.) Trent Winstone capped off an excellent day by scoring the highest points in the race as winner of the men's 50-54 age category, in which Jeff Craig, Craig Shibley and Randy Dalton finished 3, 4 and 5. Meanwhile, Jeff Sutherland rebounded from a slightly sub-par GDHL result to take the other big category (55-59) by a margin of almost three seconds, with team mates Glen Blaylock and James Mathers finishing 2 and 3. New team member Chris Barber was the fastest overall. Anne Mathers, Margaret Isberg, Kate Veer and Justin Kowal all won their categories, while Paul Woodhouse, Doug Deeks, Greg Cavers and Scott McLorie were among the other high scorers. All in all, things look solid for a Craigleith three-peat. Next race is a week Saturday at the Peaks. Without the benefit of racing at home, Taylor will be looking for more recruits. Women are always needed, and the men's 18-29 category has the potential to score big points!
Self-Improvement / Live in Hope
Dartfish video from last Saturday's nine week program training sessions, shot by Sarunas Lenauskas, is available online. The morning session is here, and the afternoon session is here.
Those of you wanting to remind yourselves of what slalom is about might want to revisit the 12 January 2012 newsletter (second edition) here, for a description of slalom gate setting, some thoughts on cross-blocking and some Ligety video.
People have been sending me some great GS video, but since this is a SL week, here's a bit of video of Lindsey Vonn skiing SL. Some nice images amidst the relatively mild Red Bull puffery.
Finally, a neat video from Shelley Johnston that shows course inspection at the Beaver Creek DH. Not exactly detailed, but see all the groups of athletes and coaches discussing things. Ivica Kostelic and his father/coach are the focus of the most animated discussion.
More than enough for now, see you on the hill. Hopefully Saturday won't be as soggy as is threatened!
James Mathers