Wellington College – Boys Ski Team Compete in Wengen
14 Feb 2018
11 boys from all year groups travelled to Wengen Switzerland to compete in the annual British Schoolboys Ski Races. The races are in three formats: the team parallel slalom, the individual Giant Slalom and the Slalom.
After two days of intense training in excellent conditions the boys kicked off the competition with the Parallel Slalom. Under floodlights in the centre of town, this is a great event, drawing many spectators and thoroughly enjoyed by all competitors. Two Wellington teams were entered and the remainder of the boys joined other schools who they had been training with during the day. The U16 team of Charlie O’Connor, Oliver Turner, Seb Batchelor and Max Umpelby were tipped to do well and breezed through the first round; unfortunately due to uneven course setting they were drawn on the slow red side and narrowly lost out in round two. Onto the seniors, where the team of Cosmo Osmond, Paolo Rossi, James Thorne and Will Beardmore ‘tactically’ made their way into the plate competition where they progressed to the semi-final, where again we fell foul of the red side.
Day 2 of competition saw the boys move up the mountain to the start of the infamous Lauberhorn downhill run, where the fast-paced Giant Slalom competition was held. All the boys put in a great performance, battling against increasingly challenging course conditions. We had fantastic results from Charlie O’Connor who came second in the U16 and Cosmo Osmond who won the U18.
The final day of competition was the Slalom, again held on the Lauberhorn. With the weather starting to change, quick runs were important. The course was 60 gates long and described by the race referee as one of the most challenging he has seen at a Schoolboys event. As fatigue started to play a part, two clean runs would put competitors in a strong position and our newest racer Gus Sutherland gave a really good account of himself, safely negotiating the course with some style. The headlines again go to Charlie and Cosmo who both finished in an excellent 3rd place, defeating some of the very experienced racers from the Swiss school Aglion, and also to the A team who finished 2nd overall with times coming from Cosmo, Charlie and Seb.
A special mention needs to go to Max Moffat who, after quietly putting together two very solid days of racing, came second overall in his age group – a fantastic achievement.
Overall it was a brilliant competition. All the boys gave a great account of themselves, both on and off the slopes. They were a credit to Wellington and we are already excited for Wengen 2019.