Great British start to World Junior and U23 Championships
The World Junior and Under 23 Championships started yesterday at Erzerum, high in the mountains of eastern Turkey. This is a remote area, not easy to get to, so unsurprisingly there are not many spectators at the course. However, reports have come back from some intrepid GB supporters with first hand accounts of the opening races.
After a long journey, involving 3 flights, the team have settled into their accommodation in a newly built complex at the foot of the alpine ski slopes. The local organisers provided friendly and helpful attaches for each team and local people have been very welcoming to all the international visitors. After a heavy snow storm on the day the GB team arrived the skies cleared and every day since has been crisp, sunny and windless. Overnight temperatures of -15C and the low humidity have meant our Swedish waxer, Bengt, is enjoying preparing skis for dry, powdery snow.
The Championships opened on Monday with the Junior freestyle sprints with Britain represented by Katie Homyer, Callum Smith and Andrew Young. The day didn't start auspiciously when the bus taking the team up to the tracks (an hour's drive from the hotel) broke down and the team were left standing by the side of the road for an hour in -15 degrees, so that some of them were still feeling cold when they started racing. In spite of this Katy and Callum both had strong races in the large fields, though they did not get through the preliminary round to the knock-out stage. Andrew Young had a good prologue, finishing in 25th place which gave him a place in the quarter-finals. He skied strongly in his heat but didn't progress to the semis, finishing 29th overall. Nonetheless he was reasonably pleased with his performance in view of the fact that he had been unwell in the week leading up to the race and had only been back on skis a day earlier. It is a mark of how British expectations have been raised in the last few years that he was only "reasonably pleased" with a top 30 place in a World Championship.
Today (Tuesday 21st Feb) it was the turn of the Under 23's and first out for Britain was Fiona Hughes. She had a good race moving up a few places above her seeding. Simon Platt and Alex Standen also skied well, finishing 57th and 58th respectively.
Meanwhile Andrew Musgrave stormed through the prologue and finished with the third fastest time of the day, behind Gianlucca Cologna of Switzerland and Russia's new young World Cup sprint star, Gleb Retivykh. Andrew went on to qualify comfortably for the semi-finals but was then caught in an unlucky tangle with Sweden's Calle Halvarsson which cost him a place in the A final. Such crashes are common in the sprint head-to-head format and all Andrew said afterwards was "it was a bit annoying as I was in 2nd place, but these things happen". In the B Final he finished third, putting him in 9th place overall. Russia took both gold and silver medals.
Perhaps the biggest compliment paid to Andrew Musgrave after this great result has come from the Norwegian nordic ski website, Langrenn.com, who have an article entitled "Musgrave best "Norwegian"" http://www.langrenn.com/musgrave-beste-lnorsker.5023634-1743.html (try Google translate).
The Championships continue tomorrow with the Junior Classic timetrials.
(Photo courtesy FasterSkier.com)
