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British skier takes gold at the 2008 Austrian National Youth Cross Country Ski Championships
Andrew Young first from left It's not something that can often be said, but Britain has a ski champion in Austria! Last week Andrew Young from Huntly snatched a hard earned victory from the Austrians in the 7.5km skate race for under 17's in their National Cross Country Ski Championships held in Saafelden. On an incredible day the sun shone on an immaculate course in a beautiful setting and the whole British Youth Team skied to their best ever results. Andrew's result was the more impressive as he was knocked down accidentally by another skier near the beginning of the race and spent the next 5km chasing down and overtaking the top ranked Austrian skier. He was followed by team mates Callum Smith (Inverurie) in 7th place and William Newman (Huntly) in 14th. In the under 16's age group Ruaridh Newman (Huntly) came 10th and Michael May (Huntly)38th ,a hard race for them as they are both only 14 so were racing against older and more experienced boys. The girl's team had a good day too with Deborah May (Huntly) and Lauren Spencer (Gloucestershire) finishing in 12th and 16th places in their respective age groups and showing up well against some talented Austrian girls. The Youth team is beginning to develop a pedigree of competing against some of the best ski nations having had good results in Norway earlier this season. The Austrian coaches were certainly impressed by the determination and skill of the British skiers with one of them showing videos of the British skiers to his own team to improve their performance! Some members of the team will be competing in races in Poland in early March while others will head to Finland over the Easter holidays. Race report (pdf) For results see Saalfelden ski club results page under Oesterreicher Meisterschaften at http://schiklubsaalfelden.com/schi/results/extern The team
Left to right: Ruaridh Newman, Michael May, Lauren Spencer, William Newman, Andrew Young, Deborah May, Callum Smith |
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