Whitewater skiers young and old showed off their speed on home powder.
The Whitewater Ski Team hosted 110 racers, over 70 volunteers, 15 coaches and over 100 parents for the Teck Whitewater Kootenay Zone Race on Jan. 14 to 15.
Athletes came as far away as Lake Louise, and ranged in age from 10 to 73. There were 44 racers from Fernie Alpine Ski Team, racers from Red Mountain, Kimberley, Kicking Horse (Golden), Black Dogs (Lake Louise), and of course a group of 37 very enthusiastic racers from Nelson’s own Whitewater team.
Dylan Henderson, head ski coach for the Whitewater team, was very pleased with how well the race was organized, and how his up and coming racers performed.
“This shows that Whitewater is a serious ski racing venue that athletes want to come to — they love Nelson and skiing at Whitewater,” said Henderson.
“This weekend also shows that we have a very competitive ski racing program that is producing some very talented ski racers.”
Whitewater Ski Team posted some excellent results, showing they are a serious ski racing club competitive with the larger clubs such as the Fernie Alpine Ski Team, which has over 200 racers.
On Saturday, Whitewater’s Aliza Jones placed first in the under-14 female AM race, while teammate Sophie Hickson placed 3rd. In the U14 female PM race, Whitewater’s Lauren Robertson placed third with Liam Lazier finishing third in the men’s U14 PM event.
For the U16 female racers, Zarah Murray of Whitewater placed first in the U16 AM race, while Whitewater’s Hanna Vanderholt followed in second. Murray later won the PM race as well.
The U16 men showed some great results with Whitewater’s Henry Leishman placing first in the AM race with the fastest time of the day at 37 seconds. His teammates Arlo Henderson and Yael Oosthuizen were second and third, respectively. In the PM race, Leishman won again followed by Oosthuizen.
Then there were three U12 races of 50 competitors and some great Whitewater results.
In the opening U12 female race, Whitewater’s Lucy Leishman tore down the course placing first by nearly half a second before finishing second in the second race.
For the U12 males, Raleigh Robertson of Whitewater placed third in race three.
On Sunday, only the U14s and U16s competed in a combined two-run race, meaning they had to finish both runs to get a result.
Jones came back from a slower first run, ripping up the second run to place second in the U14 female race.
For the U16 female race, Murray placed first while Vanderholt was second.
In the U16 male race, Whitewater’s Troy Bellman had the fastest run of the day at 38 seconds and placed first with a combined time of one minute 18 seconds ahead of Oosthuizen.
Nelson’s former alpine ski Olympian Bobby Swan, who raced for Canada in the 1964 and 1968 Olympics, finished first in the Masters race on Saturday and Sunday. In fact Swan, who is 73 years old, beat over half of the U14-U16 racers.
