Gerrit van Soest and Caele Kassa of Vernon have qualified for the U16 Alpine Ski Racing Nationals, Feb. 21-26, in Thunder Bay.
Athletes will compete in three disciplines: Super Giant Slalom, Giant Slalom, and Slalom.
Van Soest pocketed some new equipment and a gold-medal podium finish in the Tech Series Round 2 Open U16 Men’s category giant slalom last weekend at Red Mountain in Rossland.
The snow started falling Friday morning and by the time the first run was ready to go, accumulation was becoming an issue. Van Soest was bib #1 and he used fresh tracks to finish fifth.
For the second run, the top 30 are flipped so van Soest started 25th. The track was run in and getting choppy with snow piling up again, but san Soest threw down a serious fast run to close the gap and finished the two-run race first with nearly a full second to spare.
These results, combined with the Round 1 results earlier at Sun Peaks in Kamloops, ranks van Soest second U16 in the province in a very tight national points race. National ranking will improve starting positions at the upcoming nationals races.
Kassa ran excellent top sections of the challenging Red Mountain GS course only to meet the course setter’s tricky mid section with interrupted race line. Kassa skis GS in race mode and is always charging the course. With this dedication and talent, he is expected to climb the ranks. He ended the day 14th out of 69 racers.
Mahiro Yamashita of Vernon raced two consistent runs and is skiing on FIS regulation skis making the tighter GS course sections much more challenging but at that same time learning the skis he will need for the FIS big leagues next season. Mahiro ended up 18th. He has consistently moved up the ranks throughout the season.
Andrew Schmidt changed his GS equipment set-up mid season and has rapidly moved up the ranking with his goal clearly set to be in the top-10 of provincial level racers. Schmidt skied the top section of the first run with confidence and a solid race line. Unfortunately, he was caught out on the tricky mid section and didn’t finish the race.
