Members of the Smithers Ski and Snowboard Club had a strong showing in their first real test of the season with top 10 finishes at the Teck race at the Sun Peaks resort in Kamloops.
With over 100 of the Okanagan region’s top skiers in attendance, the eight participants from Smithers had their work cut out for them and they took to the task with no holds barred.
Top results were recorded by Chloe Collingwood in the 12 and under division with three top 10 finishes, and from Liam Huxtable with a second and a pair of thirds in the under 16 division. Sage Murphy also recorded a third in the under 16 category.
The first day of competition was in Giant Slalom while the next was in Slalom. Each skier had several runs in each racing style.
Four of the skiers will represent the zone in the upcoming BC Winter Games.
Dick Eastmure, head coach of the club, was pleased with the results.
“For the caliber of athlete we have and for the amount of work they put in they pretty much performed up to their potential,” he said.
He felt it was an excellent opportunity for them to experience such competition after the hard work that they had been able to put in from the early season through the holiday period.
According to Eastmure, it was a fairly competitive event with a strong field of athletes that represented the level of athletes that can be expected at events such as the BC Games.
Since the hill opened in November, the team has had about 20 days of training preparing for the racing season.
“The conditions for training have been excellent and we had enough snow and it was hard enough to make for great skiing,” he said.
The next competition will be in Quesnel in February. Eastmure said that it would be a smaller field since it would be a northern zone event.
Eastmure said that while he was looking for good results from the BC Games, he was not expecting podium finishes since the local skiers are all at the lower end of an age category where the growth of one year can make a tremendous difference.
