Tuesday 12 April 2016

Lara's first skiing award

Lara had her final race of the season on Saturday, it's only an "internal" race, but it's still all done properly, with gates and timing. Parents are allowed to race in this one too, but Lara opted not to challenge me, though it'll be interesting if the club publish the skiers' times, to see how we compare. In her age group - the 2007 females - she came sixth, just edging out her best skiing pal, Lillian, into seventh. Lara was absolutely delighted to finally have her name called out, and to get a ribbon from Brady Leman, the Canadian SkiCross champion. 


It was a lovely end to the season, and came at just the right time to encourage her for next season, as she was becoming a little dispirited with not getting any reward for her other races this season, even though she has been performing better and better each time. Her coach, Sergey, has recommended that she move up to the next ability level for next season, which will be a jump up in commitment for us all - last year she had 18 days on snow, this season has been 33 days, and next season will be 56 days! It's an earlier start in the season, a later finish, and plenty of midweek evening skiing at Calgary Olympic Park too.
The skiers got to dress up for this race, and Lara's group chose a Big Cat theme, with Olga spending many hours in the week before the race making Lara's cheetah suit from scratch. Sergey was a very convincing lion, too...