Snowsport GB 2007-03-25 18:38:00
British Championship Update - Day 1

Meribel, France, Sunday 25th March 07. Chemmy Alcott delayed her arrival at The British Land National Ski Championships which started today in Meribel, France as she chose to compete in the French National Ski Championships in nearby Val d’Isere.

It proved a valuable decision as she finished fifth in yesterday’s Women’s Slalom and then today she retained the Women’s Giant Slalom title that she won a year ago in Villars de Lans. While the brace of good results are a pleasing late season bonus for Alcott, it was the opportunity to gain valuable race experience on the new pistes which will be used for the 2009 World Championships which was the principal reason for competing in Val d’Isere.

She competes again tomorrow in the Women’s Super G before shuttling over here to Meribel where she faces a tight schedule to compete in the Women’s British Championship Downhill which is scheduled for Tuesday.

“It’s good to retain the title, but the two hills – here and Villars de Lans - are polar opposites. It is a tough, uncompromising slope here, steep all the way and you have to be on it all the time. The first run I ran out of gas a bit, but my second run was good.” Explained Alcott today, “In the Slalom I crossed my skis in the first run and was left wondering what might have been if I hadn’t and in the second, but overall it’s the experience here on the pistes we will be using in a couple of years time that is important.”

Meanwhile in Meribel, the British Land National Ski Championships opened officially with one run of downhill training in near perfect conditions. With a number of the top British Land Alpine Team skiers also in Val d’Isere today – where their racing was cancelled due to heavy snowfall – Noel Baxter’s early reconnaissance mission could prove critical. While most of the top downhill seeds were sitting idle in Val d’Isere he skied an accomplished training run today, quickest by over 1.5 seconds. Pamela Thorburn was the fastest in the women’s first training run, just over one second ahead of Lynn Sharp.