British ladies overall champion x3

I can’t believe that the Delancey British Alpine Champs are already finished. What happened to the season!? I was really happy with my results throughout the week and defending my overall titles was definitely a surprise!
The week started off with the speed events; super G was up first. I was feeling a bit wobbly in warm up as I hadn’t been on my super gs for over a month but I was determined to go for it from the first run. I have skied the speed hill in Tignes plenty of times and I knew that it wasn’t difficult and that I usually lose the most time on the top flat section so that was where I really had to glide and take the fastest line possible. I was pleased with my skiing in the Super G but I knew there were a few turns where I could really take the hand brake off! I finished 3rd overall and 2nd brit. There was still a second race though. I skied better and moved up in the rankings by one place but I was still 2nd Brit behind Alex Tilley but this time I was closer to her.
The next day was the downhill training. They were brilliant fun and my times weren’t too bad! The next day I was going for the win in the races. I had a good first run but I made a classic mistake of taking way too much space on the line on the flat even though I skied the steep well. With yet another silver medal I really wanted a gold! My top section in the second race was much better and I was really happy with my skiing on the bottom section where I made up time. I felt really on the limit and I let me skis go. It paid off though as I crossed the line just 0.10 seconds ahead of Alex Tilley. I was great to finally get a win, even though it was a Junior race so I wasn’t on the podium. It was really cool having Tilley race the speed races, it definitely made me push myself harder to go for the win and it was great being able to compare my times to hers, whether I was behind her or in front!
I sadly packed away my downhill skis for the season and it was onto the tech events! First up was slalom, definitely my worst event. Thanks to the timing not working on the first run I got a warm up run! They then decided to rerun the whole race so we did three runs of slalom in the day, with the second and third run counting for the race. My aim was to place myself as well as possible in amongst the Brits to gain valuable points for the Overall title. I had a bit of a slow first run and I was 6th Brit... My next run was much better and I moved up to 4th Brit! It would have been good to get a podium in slalom, as that has never happened at the British Champs but you can’t win them all!
I was really excited for the giant slalom race the next day. I knew that I had to finish in front of Tilley to win the Overall title but that wasn’t going to be easy. Despite the sun having not stopped shining for 6 days, the weather for the Giant Slalom was wet, snowy and foggy and the snow was soft and bumpy. My first run felt horrific. I couldn’t see anything and I was being bumped around all over the place. I knew that I had skied the bottom steep section well though and I hoped that would have made up some time from my horrendous top section! I was sat in 4th place, 0.7 from the leader and just 0.02 behind Tilley. We had to wait for a while for the second run as the weather got worse but eventually we were off. Just before I went into the start gate my coach took me to one side and told me this was it. This was my run, the conditions suited my skiing best and I had nothing to lose to go for the win. It woke up the fire inside of me and once I placed my poles over the start wand I felt completely on my own and 100% focused on the course in front of me. My run started off really well, I felt fast and then I hit a big turn and there was a huge hole that you couldn’t see because of the weather. I got really late on the line, my coach said that from the start the only thing he saw was my leg going above my head and he thought I had fallen! In my mind the win was gone but it also made me angry and I charged all the way to the finish. When I crossed the line I had no idea what to expect. As I skied over to the timing board I saw that Tilley had unfortunately DNFed but I also saw that I had the fastest overall time by 0.03! I also scored a second best result of 18 points to go with my 17 points from a few weeks ago so my points will now to go 18.09, placing me around 150th in the world.
I had defended my Ladies Overall title for the third year in a row and won the Victor Ludorum for the second time. I was also really proud to have won the British Giant Slalom title for the first time.
My Giant Slalom result was really unexpected as were all the Overall titles. I’m looking forward to the end of the season, with 3 GS races and 3 SS races still to go the season is definitely not over. I have scored in all disciplines this season so I don’t have to worry about points for the next few weeks. My aim is to try and ski right to the limit, with nothing to lose!
You can find pictures from the week on my facebook page
And check out this awesome video my Orsatus coach Greg put together