Page 21 - Linton Link

be a close race and so it proved to be, just 0.05 seconds split the top two. SLt French was one of the first skiers down, setting the bench mark, unfortunately for him it was the Army’s number one who came out on top, just pipping him to the line. But a podium, beating two of the Army’s three full time skiers was still a good result to start the week and more importantly the Royal Navy had beaten the RAF into second!
SLt French is unique in competing in both the alpine and telemark events at the interservices. So as quickly as the adrenaline had gone from the downhill, he was back to the top with a different set of skis and boots to take on another race. Again, it went the way of the Army and he was again pushed into second by 0.14 of a second. The Navy team were strong though comfortably winning the service event.
Redemption was the plan for the next day of racing, two seconds from the first day by the tightest of margins. It wasn’t to be for SLt French, two crashes later and that was that. Fortunately, the only thing hurt was his pride!
Thursday started with the telemark sprint race, a race contested over two runs with a mixture of downhill skiing, a jump and skating to finish. Finally, he found his form and skied a good run, leaving him in provisional first place. The second is started in reverse order
of your position in the first. SLt French, last out of the gate put the previous results behind him and after another good performance, taking the win. The RN team showed great
“Redemption was the plan for the next day of racing, two seconds from the first day by the tightest of margins”
strength to seal the team competition. As the sun went down it was not après ski time for the competitors, the floodlights were turned on for the slalom race. The slowest and most technical of the alpine disciplines it is not
SLt French favoured event. Never the less a reasonable performance left him fifth and scoring some good points for the RN team.
For the final day the programming gods were not on his side, a clash between the Alpine and telemark races meant he was only able to compete in the alpine giant slalom race. He was really looking forward to it and the conditions were great, regrettably he was a bit over zealous in the first run and crashed out of the course.
It would be fair to say that SLt French had a mixed week at the interservices.
“I was really happy with some of my skiing this week, particularly in the Downhill. I managed to take a step forward from last year and although I was beaten by the smallest of margins, I felt I left everything on the hill. It was good to get an individual event win in the telemark sprint race, a few times this week it felt like it wasn’t going to happen but I’m very relieved it did.”
Overall SLt French was part of the winning telemark team, now for the third year running. With the alpine team finishing as runners up to the Army. If anyone reading this is interested in getting involved in ski racing, then each of the service ski teams are actively encouraging personnel to get involved. The RAF/RN ski champs are a great place to give it a go.
SPRING 2019
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