Ski Season Success
South Hampstead girls performed incredibly well at the English Schools Ski Association National Finals last weekend, emerging as national champions.
Following pre-season trials, South Hampstead entered teams for the ESSKIA (English Schools Ski Association) regional slalom qualifiers in September, at the Welwyn dry slope. Racing through two courses of slalom gates, our teams won their races by a huge margin, qualifying for the English National Championships in Norfolk.
At the finals, despite racing against committed skiing schools with a bespoke ski staff, scholarships and skiing programmes, the U14 team won again, to be crowned English Champions – a tremendous achievement. The girls also secured individual glories placing 2nd (Hannah), 3rd (Maddy), 4th (Millie) and 5th (Momo); Hannah also won the plate for the fastest, non-registered snow sport England racer. Well done too to our U12 team – Alice, Alina, Amelia and Maia – on their bronze medal, and to our U16s – Anna, Julia, Leila and Freya (still only in Year 7) – on their strong performances.
Leila, Anna, Hannah and Maddy then entered the ESSKIA Open qualifier as a U19 team; despite being one of the youngest teams, the girls have qualified for the National Open Championships to be held in Scotland this November. They will be one of 11 English girls’ school teams racing against the best Welsh and Scottish schools.
Based on their performances this season, Hannah, Millie, Momo and Maddy have also been selected to join the ESSKIA National Junior Squad – a huge honour. This mixed squad, for up to 36 trainees, is the start towards possible selection for Team GB at the biennial ISF (International School Sports Federation) World School Ski Championships. The girls are looking forward to their squad induction day in January and a week’s squad training session in Italy next March.
We also sent two senior teams to the British Independent Schools (BISS) indoor ski race this month: Noa, Leila, Izzy, Anna, Hannah, Momo, Millie and Maddy headed off to the Milton Keynes snow dome with Ms Levin. Again the girls did really well both individually and as a team: Noa, South Hampstead Sportswoman of the Year, took individual 4th in the U18s; in the U14 slalom, Maddy took 3rd, Momo 5th, Hannah 6th and Millie 8th. As a team, Noa, Anna, Millie and Maddy won Bronze in the girls’ U21 team event – despite being some of the youngest skiers in the category – earning a huge box of well-deserved Celebrations!
Although not a key school sport, the girls have shown incredible commitment and enthusiasm this season, with many of our skiers joining the Hemel race club to train regularly throughout the year. We are hugely grateful to our dedicated parent volunteer who has been instrumental in supporting the teams and leading them to achieve such great success.