Hi guys I recently competed at th e European Championships in Dnipro, Ukrain and it was amazing. I skied well for my first Europeans coming 9th in slalom, 11th in trick and getting a new PB in Jump of 13.9m.
My first event was trick on the first day of the competition. I was in series two and was third off the dock in my catagory. I skied well getting my second highest trick score of the year, but despite this I was still one place of the final by 170 points coming 11th when 10 go through to the final. However this was still reasonably happy with my ski and the score counted for the team overall.
On the next day I had my slalom preliminary round and was 7th off the dock in series one. In this round I didn’t have a great ski only getting 2 @ 13m which at the time I didn’t think was enough to make the final as it looked like the cut off was 2.5 @ 13. At this point I was devastated as slalom is my main event. However partway through the round, as others had bad skis, we realised that I would be in a four way run off for the final with two free places! This meant that at the end of the series I had to go to the start dock and ski again but this time starting at 14m. There were four of us who wanted the spaces but only two spots in the final so we flipped a coin to decide the order. I got to ski second after a Swiss girl. She went out and scored 1 @ 13 which is a very good score straight of the dock with no warm up passes and quite unusual for a run off. Once she came back into the dock it was my turn no I was determined to get into the final. I skied really well in the conditions also getting 1 @ 13 meaning that if the next two girls didn’t beat that score I was in the final. He next girl who went out skied well but only got 5 @ 14m which was good news for me, however the final girls to ski also got 1 @ 13 which meant we had to do another run off with the remaining three competitors!
I was second off the dock again after the same Swiss girl who skied extreamly well again getting he same side as before, 1 @ 13m. This meant that I had to do a better score or risk another run off. However I also skied the same score as the first skier again meaning that if the last Ukrainian girl beat or matched the score we would have to do another run off! We were all extreamly nervous on the dock waiting to see what the last girl scored and tried not to show how happy we were when she missed 14m meaning that I was in the final!!!
On the day of the slalom finial I had to get up at 6am as I was second off the dock. There was no other skiers at the site when we arrived and the lake was completely flat, perfect conditions. I went down to the dock and waited for my turn. Was after the same Swiss girl and in the run off and after her ski it was my turn. It wasn’t my best ski but I was still very pleased getting 2.5 @ 13m putting me in 9th place!
On Thursday I had my jump preliminary with the three other British U14 girls. I was first off the dock and jumped 13.9 m which was a new PB, I was extremely happy with this as I have only started Jump this year and was not able to train at all at my home club JB as the ramp is being fixed.
Overall I am extremely pleased with how I skied coming 6th as a team with all of us contributing with at least one discipline. It was a great experience which I thoughrouly enjoyed and hope I have again.
Thank you to my coaches John Battleday and Jodi Fisher for all the training and support.
#jodisskiskool #JBSki
