BRITISH YOUTH TEAM AT THE

BRITISH AND ARMY CROSS COUNTRY SKI CHAMPIONSHIPS

A contingent of the younger members of the British Youth Nordic Ski team travelled to Ruhpolding in Germany at the beginning of February to take part in the annual British cross country ski championship organised by the army. They came home with a cluster of medals yet again in spite of being without some of their usual medal contenders who were obliged to stay at home because of school exam commitments.

In the ladies section, Sarah Young was the Junior Champion in the 10km classic race, and she also reached the final of the Sprint knock-out championship, finishing in bronze medal position behind two senior skiers. An unusual mix up in the marking of the course for the ladies 6km pursuit race led to the disqualification of more than half of the field, leaving 15 year old Ashleigh Spittle to become the British Ladies Pursuit Champion. Ashleigh is an Australian guest of the team this year and her win was a deserved reward for correctly memorising the course before the race! In the U16 girl's classic race Ashleigh was the winner again, beating Lauren Spencer into 2^nd place, positions that were repeated in the girls sprint knock-out competition. The U14 girls classic and pursuit races were both won by Katy Homyer in her first competition as a member of the team and she rounded off her week by reaching the final of the sprint event, where she came 4^th.

In the boys groups, 16 year old Ian Barron came 3^rd in the Youth classic race and then put in a good performance in the Junior and Youth pursuit race where he was the only civilian in his age group to compete. His older team mates, Simon Spencer (18) and Jamie Kunka (19) took 5^th and 10^th spots respectively in the same event. Meanwhile in the U16 boys races, Ruaridh Newman had a fantastic championship, winning both the classic and pursuit events. He had one of the most exciting races of the meet in the pursuit when he raced for the line against a boy from the age group above, just losing out by half a second. He then took second place in the Boy and Youth sprint competition.

The U14 boys group was the biggest in the team with most of the boys competing for the first time. Jamie Homyer in his first race as a team member took 2^nd place in the boys 3km classic race, closely followed by team mates Sandy Snowball, Cameron Miller and Rory Swann in 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th places. Jamie took second place again in the pursuit race for U14 boys, with Cameron, Sandy and Rory this time in 4^th, 5^th and 6^th places respectively. Like his sister, Katy, Jamie also reached the finals of the boys knock-out sprint and came 4^th.

This was another tremendously enjoyable visit to the British Championships for the Youth Team. It has become an annual fixture for the younger members of the group especially, introducing them to a major ski competition on a world standard ski course. Thanks are due again to the army who stage the event so efficiently.