Henderson & Gould Claim Hemel Honours

So after covering the length and breadth of England ’s green and pleasant land Hemel’s shiny new indoor facility provided the final stop of the 2011 Snowsport England Grand Prix series.

Indeed like the four previous races in the series sponsored by Ski Solutions, Aosta Valley , Ski Bartlett and Atomic the final event proved to be another hard fought event.

In the male event James Greenwood looked a red hot favourite to follow up earlier indoor triumphs at the Milton Keynes and Chill Factor events. Callum Henderson would have certainly been looking to upset the form book however and did enough to earn a slight first run advantage over Aldershot racer Greenwood and home racer Matt Thompson. Indeed with 0.01 second splitting Henderson & Greenwood there was everything to fight for on run 2.

In the end however it was Henderson who prevailed, dealing with fine runs by Thompson & Greenwood in the best way possible – by cutting a quarter second out of their times – and claiming a deserved victory.

The ladies race was an equally tight affair as first run leader Caroline Powell was left to deal with a superb 2nd run charge from Charlotte Gould. Unlike Henderson, in the males event however, Powell couldn’t react to Gould’s fine run and an error half way down the afternoon run proved to be her undoing as a promising day ended in DNF territory and handed the win to the Telford athlete.

In the categories Alicja Krahelski and Finlay Davis claimed the honours in Chi 1 category whilst Megan Jenkins (an impressive 2nd overall) & Robert Poth followed suit in Chi 2. In Jun 1 Telford duo Ellen Brown and Ashley Breese proved too good for their compatriots as did Charlotte Gould and Matt Thompson in the older junior category.

In the senior and masters categories Fern Barker and Kerry Turnock claimed female honours whilst Henderson and Claude Farron followed suit in the male event.

So the sun set on another year of Snowsport England ’s premier race series. Whether it be indoors or outdoors the racing has been of an impressive quality and the series winners can deservedly feel proud of their achievements. Next stop on the 2011 calendar is Norfolk and the 36th All England Championships. If the racing is half as exciting as the GP series have been it’ll one not to miss.