Tri Regional Report
Tri Regional 2008
A report by Andy Proudlove
Well, the weather was COLD!! - bitterly at times
(I had to scrape the frost off the car at 07:00 am) BUT it didn't rain
and sometimes it was sunny. John Curtis kept trying to will on the rain and
kept the Officials and Racers alike on their toes by threatening us with
rain and using this as an excuse to hurry everybody up, however thankfully it
didn't happen until the evening.
The organisation was brilliant and believe it or
not the timing gear actually worked (well almost), so we didn't have to
resort to the flags. Everybody from LSERSA actually turned up and
this included the reserves which was amazing so thanks to everybody who helped
with organising the people and the logistics of the sweatshirts which were a
dream and highly appropriate considering the weather conditions, plus they
looked very smart as well.
But what about "The Racing" you say!!, well
it was ahem!! cough, splutter, etc !!!!! -- I'm sorry to say we
LOST, but that wasn't surprising considering a large contingent of our top
racers went to Ireland, plus also quite a few
racers have also gone off to University for the first time (and Danielle F went
to the SkiCross in Glasgow), and other such commitments.
The LSERSA teams tried very hard but seem to be
dogged with silly problems. I'm sure the spectators will be able to
tell you more, but for instance my team (D) lost the first race
because I trod on my own ski, the second race ZACH's ski came off and he
managed to ski to the bottom on one ski, however unfortunately he missed a few
gates on the way down which was very inconsiderate of him - obviously we haven't
trained him well enough in the art of one-legged Slalom!
Then I think we won a race (so that lifted our
spirits) particularly with the two girls in our team, then Will Thompson
came out of the course. This was followed by Zach getting disqualified for a
controversial straddle which completely baffled the rest of our Team but
the officials were not having any of it, so their decision was
final.
Then after a couple of races where we were
beaten fair and square it was Lunch (much to everybody's relief as the cold had
affected everybody's bladder). So then a few more races and before we knew it we
were in a 3/4th play off after we had beaten little Lauren and Charlie's team (I
did feel guilty). So the excitement was mounting and we had to race against
LSERSA E (a race we should have easily won on paper). ZACH is in
the start - RACER READY and GO - you would have never have guessed what happened
next!!!! - ZACH somehow managed to do a pirouette out of the start,
doing a complete 360 degree turn spinning all the way around, thus giving the lead to
Bonnie Ryde Team. Although everybody tried really hard we never caught them --
they won third place.
This was typical of the racing that LSERSA endured,
I also saw Will Deakin blow out of a very easy win against LSERSA B who in turn got
beaten by ERSA B for the Third Place overall.
However a great day was had by all and
most of the teams seemed to be fairly evenly matched (particularly Teams A - E).
It will be interesting to see what happens next year.
I look forward to it with great pleasure.
Results