Rydal Penrhos are Welsh Ski Champions!
The Welsh Schools Ski Championship trophy has returned to North Wales for the first time since 1999!
Rydal Penrhos School is celebrating after the Boys ‘A’ Team secured the title at the Welsh Schools Skiing Championships held at Llangrannog at the beginning of October.
Although the team had reached the podium over the past few years, the top place step had eluded them. However, fortunes changed this year when Henry Salisbury from Colwyn Bay and Harrison Holmes from Abergele began the campaign with 2 excellent runs.
Team member Ben Crocker from Connecticut, USA made an explosive entrance onto the run by bursting out of the gate, seemingly only hitting the ground half way down the course. Meanwhile, final team member Tom Harding from Colwyn Bay joined a very select group of skiers on the Llangrannog course by putting in an 8 second run.
An unfortunate crash in the practice session saw Leon Osterchrist ruled out of the competition, making it a difficult task for the Boys B team to qualify for the British Championships next month. Despite Sean Robinson, Sol Kerfoot-Robson and Matt Harding putting in some excellent runs, a straddle on one run put the team out of the race.
The Girls team also knew things weren’t going to be easy, having finished 2nd to Eirias in the North Wales championships 2 weeks ago and expecting the usual strong challenge from Cowbridge. At the end of the first run Sara Owen, Pia Roth, Seren Kerfoot-Robson and Sophie Elliott were right in the mix with only hundredths of a second separating the 12 skiers from the 3 teams. In the second run all 4 again produced fast times but just lost out by 2 tenths of a second to Eirias and Cowbridge.
As well as the great team performances, our skiers also brought home more individual medals than any other school. Both the Boys and the Girls A teams have now qualified for the British Championships in Edinburgh at the end of November.
Congratulations to the team members for the following individual medals:
Seren Kerfoot-Robson 1st Child 2, 3rd overall
Sophie Elliott 1st Junior 2 (unreg), 4th overall
Sara Owen 2nd Child 1 (unreg), 12th overall
Pia Roth 3rd Junior 1 (unreg), 14th overall
Tom Harding 1st Junior 1 (unreg), 4th overall
Harrison Holmes 2nd Junior 2 (unreg), 6th overall
Henry Salisbury 2nd Junior 1 (unreg), 7th overall
Ben Crocker 3rd Junior 2 (unreg), 10th overall
Sol Kerfoot-Robson 2nd Child 1 (unreg), 15th overall
Matt Harding 4th Child 2 (unreg), 19th overall
Congratulations to every skier who took part.
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