February 18th 2009
It continued to snow in Myrkdalen, by this stage there was about a metre of fresh snow! The training day was cancelled as there was far too much snow on course from a safety perspective. There was a pretty nice opening ceremony held in the centre of Voss, where we all got to walk across the stage and collect a goodie bag from Kari Traa! We were stoked with the goodies in the bag! The following day we went out for training, they changed the course slightly for the FIS event, making some jumps bigger. It was extremely difficult conditions, the course was soft, it was chopped up and bumpy, there were holes in the course, a lot of competitors were losing their skis from the holes in the course. There were a number of concussions and plenty of crashes! Qualification went quite well, I was in 30th position and gained a spot in the finals. I had a good heat and knew that I had a chance if I really gave it a go. I was pumped and willing to give it everything….that I did! I had a great start and got over the first jump and moved into 2nd place behind Meryl Boulangeat, in an attempt to try and hold my position I skied a tight line (which I had not skied before) and I realised why…the rollers were far more savage on the inside line and they just threw me about, I was a bit out of control and then crashed hard - straight on my head!!! It hurt! I was GUTTED! But everybody said it was a great start and I really went for it and in the words of Heikki “You showed great courage”. Only 1 heat of of the 8 ladies heats finished with 4 competitors on their feet! It was tough and rough! I think this was the highlight of the season so far, I know I can be in the mix if I can just stay on my feet! Well…that headache hung around for the next 5 days! Potentially a mild concussion but didn’t want to face it. We loaded up Andra’s car and Mitchey, Andra, Sophie and I car pooled all the way to Branaes, Sweden and arrived about 9 hours later. Next update from Branaes!
It continued to snow in Myrkdalen, by this stage there was about a metre of fresh snow! The training day was cancelled as there was far too much snow on course from a safety perspective. There was a pretty nice opening ceremony held in the centre of Voss, where we all got to walk across the stage and collect a goodie bag from Kari Traa! We were stoked with the goodies in the bag! The following day we went out for training, they changed the course slightly for the FIS event, making some jumps bigger. It was extremely difficult conditions, the course was soft, it was chopped up and bumpy, there were holes in the course, a lot of competitors were losing their skis from the holes in the course. There were a number of concussions and plenty of crashes! Qualification went quite well, I was in 30th position and gained a spot in the finals. I had a good heat and knew that I had a chance if I really gave it a go. I was pumped and willing to give it everything….that I did! I had a great start and got over the first jump and moved into 2nd place behind Meryl Boulangeat, in an attempt to try and hold my position I skied a tight line (which I had not skied before) and I realised why…the rollers were far more savage on the inside line and they just threw me about, I was a bit out of control and then crashed hard - straight on my head!!! It hurt! I was GUTTED! But everybody said it was a great start and I really went for it and in the words of Heikki “You showed great courage”. Only 1 heat of of the 8 ladies heats finished with 4 competitors on their feet! It was tough and rough! I think this was the highlight of the season so far, I know I can be in the mix if I can just stay on my feet! Well…that headache hung around for the next 5 days! Potentially a mild concussion but didn’t want to face it. We loaded up Andra’s car and Mitchey, Andra, Sophie and I car pooled all the way to Branaes, Sweden and arrived about 9 hours later. Next update from Branaes!
No comments:
Post a Comment