Sega Shines, Greenwood's Glory

Snowsport England Grand Prix Series
Round 4 - Chill Factor, Manchester
18th June, 2011

So just seven days after the previous round the Snowsport England Grand Prix Series headed north as Manchester ’s Chill Factor played host to the fourth and penultimate round of 2011.

As ever, the race piste in Britain ’s best indoor racing facility was prepared in tip top condition and would provide every racer with the opportunity to excel.

However it was a name from summer’s past that forced herself to the fore as Sega Fairweather returned to SSE’s Grand Prix racing with an awesome display of attacking ski racing. Indeed in generating angles and speed that none of her rivals could come close to matching the former Arrows & Team GB starlet opened up a near half second gap after run 1 and the proceeded to more than double her advantage on run 2.

Such was her dominance of proceedings that the rest of the ladies field were truly only ever racing for 2nd place.

Behind Fairweather the race was significantly tighter however with no less than four racers split by 0.2 seconds at the half way stage. Home slope racer Beth Widdup eventually prevailed in the overall runners up spot, the impressive young Chill Factor racer’s second run proving too good for Caroline Powell, Charlotte Gould and Megan Jenkins respectively.

In the male event proceedings were far more open than in the ladies race with the top six overall racers all finishing within one second of James Greenwood’s winning time. Granted Greenwood ’s opening run did sufficient damage to the rest of the field to create a smidgen of breathing space, but even with the quarter second gap generated Greenwood was still only one run 2 error away from missing out. Indeed whilst Greenwood ’s impeccable second run proved conclusive, with the top eight racers on run 2 separated by less than 0.3 seconds, the Aldershot racer’s run had to be to be faultless.

In the categories Kerry Turnock and Claude Farron claimed victories in the masters categories whilst Fairweather and Greenwood claimed the honours in the senior category. Caroline Powell’s 3rd overall and Eliya Beelaert-Rubin (2nd overall) claimed junior 2 honours with Beth Widdup and Max Baggio following suit in Junior 1. Megan Jenkins and Robert Poth triumphed in the older of the children’s categories with Olivia Ward and Finlay Davies winning the younger children’s event.

The final event of sees the series moving back south into Hemel’s indoor facility. Indeed with plenty still to fight for both in the overall and age categories the series sponsored by Aosta Valley, Ski Solutions, Ski Bartlett and Atomic looks set for a fantastic summer 2011 finale.