FOUR of our talented skiers successfully navigated a slalom course to win second place in the National Schools’ Indoor Ski Championships.
In March they competed in the North West competition for the first time at Pendle Ski Slope and won in their age group earning a place in the final.
More used to the dry ski slopes of Ski Rossendale, the teenage students faced the tricky challenge of real snow at the final in Castleford.
Matthew trains at Ski Rossendale where Jonathan Calvert and Adam Griffin are members of the 2K Club.
The fourth member, Reece Griffiths used to ski a lot, but admitted he has switched snow for water and now swims competitively.
They were all given time to complete practice runs on the snow before having three goes at tackling the slalom course. The best time from each of the team’s skiers was combined to create their final score.
Adam said: “The course was a bit different because it was on snow and it is faster.”
Matthew said: “If you are used to a dry slope it is harder on snow because it is harder to position yourself correctly.”
The timing board was not showing the competitors and how they had done so it was not until the winners were announced that the Haslingden team realised they were in second place.
Adam said: “There were about 150 other competitors from primary and secondary schools and we were against about 16 teams in our age category.
“We thought we would be somewhere in the middle so were delighted.”
The skiers said they hoped to be able to compete again next year.