Date: 6th January 2009
Happy new year! We managed to train with the German National team at their national training centre for 2 days just prior to the New Year, which was invaluable! I also managed to get my new skis tuned and prepared by the World Cup Technician Martin Lampert from Liechtenstein, he did a great job and I am very appreciative!! We travelled back to France for the new year and then back across to St Johann/Obernsdorf in Tirol, Austria for the first world cup! They put on a real show! The ladies field doubled and we had 50 ladies starting. However, they did bring the injecting machine across from Kitzbuhel and inject the slope a few times. On training day it was rock solid, there was some fairly large jumps with really hard landings and it was fairly hard to hold an edge, but everyone was in the same boat. That night we were greeted with a competition dinner and Tyrolian dancers slap slap slapping their thighs, kicking, toe taping, bum slapping and so forth! Brilliant! The following day we went out for training and everyone was fighting for a run, everyone was given one run in the end. I thought the snow looked a little more see through in inspection and it turns out they injected it again over night…not that it was necessary!!! Well…everyone described that training run as ‘bambi on ice’ and it is an accurate description! Skis just doing their own thing It was so icy that I tried to take some direction into the final 3metre jump and the skis just slid out, I went off it inside, back and just went splat on the “concrete” landing. Hurt a bit, I must say it shook me up a little, I lost some confidence and only came away with a scratched and bruised wrist! The qualification run, didn’t feel so good, but I don’t think it was a course where you could feel good! I ended up 36th but know there is room to improve. Did manage to enjoy a good night of Tyrolian dance interpretation in the town centre followed by some karaoke practise. The finals were the following night and were excellent, the organisers did an excellent job and it was a real spectacle. There were some fairly large collisions. Marion Josserand from France won the ladies after leading Ophelie’s ski pre released in the final half way down and the men’s was won my Michael Schmid of Switzerland. We set back off to France (being pulled over by the police along the way for not having a vignette on our car and being charged 120euros for it or threatened to take our car away and pay 3000euro to get it back…he was very stern….but we talked our way out of it…of course!!) Oh and on a positive note…the car is back running on 4 cylinders and purring like a kitten!! We are now preparing for the next World Cup in Les Contamines France.
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