While driving through Revelstoke last weekend Vernon Ski Club families were excited to get to the big mountain as they passed 10-foot high snow banks lining the streets.
They were also excited for the Okanagan Zone finals of the Rio Tinto Alcan ski race series for children aged five to 11 years. The five- to eight-year-olds competed in dual slalom on Saturday and the nine- to 11-year-olds race Sunday in kombi.
“The track and conditions were fantastic, and it gave these young racers confidence to charge as fast as they could,” said ski club director John Armstrong. “The race hill itself was under the lower gondola so it could be watched from the snow or from above passing by. Cowbells and cheers filled the air as these kids had a race to remember.”
Vernon racers earned several medals with Rowan Trow taking silver in six-year-old boys and Rane Smith and Katrina Fink collecting silver and bronze, respectively, in eight-year-old girls.
Jamie Trow won a bronze in eight-year-old boys. This was a combined time race with competitors running in each course of the dual slalom.
With high stakes for several nine- to 11-year- olds, the kombi competition saw several gold medals from the Vernon racers. Liam Glennon garnered a gold and bronze in the nine-year-old boys category, while Anton Youngberg produced gold and silver in the 10-year-old boys.
In the 11-year-old categories, Gillian Smith took two gold medals in the girls as did Connor Glennon in the boys. The kombi was run as two separate single-run races.
Meanwhile, athletes from Canada, the U.S. and Europe competed in the SportChek Canada Ski Cross Noram race at Red Mountain in Rossland.
Run concurrently was the Ski Cross Showdown Open for younger athletes. While spectator friendly, Ski Cross has been an event in the X Games for several years and made its debut as an Olympic sport at the 2010 Games in Vancouver.
The event features either a four-or-six-person, head-to-head mass start on a course of big air bumps and banked turns, patterned after BMX and motocross racing. It combines elements of both alpine and freestyle skiing.
Advancing through elimination heats to the final, battling rain and poor visibility, Vernon’s Brendan Davidson, 16, drew on his alpine racing background to strike gold in the Youth 16 to 18 Open category, edging Big White’s Ned Ireland.
The next race is the Canadian National Ski Cross Championships in Lake Louise in early April.
