First Podium for John and Nick on last day of Sestriere

It was a great day for John and Nick made up for their disapointment of yesterday by getting on the podium for the first time in todays Slalom. James also had a great day building on yesterdays performance coming fourth and improving his points. Sadly things didn't go to plan for Mick as he crashed coming out of the royal flush. However up to that point he was flying so we are now looking forward to Abtenau.

IPCAS Success

Jade and her Guide Fi shine again in the first IPCAS race in Sestriere, taking Gold in the GS and securing their Europa Cup points. It was also a good day for Mick and the rest of the development athletes who put in good performances. Mick put together two solid runs to finish 6th. James Whitley, the youngest skier on the hill also skied exceptionally well to finish 6th against a strong field. John Dickinson-Lilley and his Guide Nick Hatherly had a good first run for their first race together but a mistake in the 2nd run meant that he didn't finish but was great experience and has another chance tomorrow in Slalom.

First Podium of 2012

After yesterdays disappointment in the first Slalom where all three athletes failed to finish,Anna crashing out in the first run, Tim in the second and Jade and Fi ending their podium run, being disqualifed for stradling a gate in the 2nd run. All three made up for their mistakes today with much stronger performances. Anna put in some solid skiing to take fourth place and Tim was again in the top 15 with a much improved 2nd run begining to again show what he can do. The highlight was Jade and Fiona bringing home a silver medal.

The next couple of days is a chance for Mick to get back in to races after taking a few days off through a shoulder twinge and for some experience for a couple of development squad. James Whitney will be hoping to build on some strong performances last year.  For Johnny and Nick it will be there first race together working as a team. Good luck guys

First Race of 2012

The first Europa Cup races of 2012 didn't quite follow the way of the early season races. With only Anna, Tim and Mick racing, Anna put in a solid first run sitting in 4th position but crashed out in the 2nd run. Mick also put in a great first run despite a big mistake he would have been right in the mix however having a crash heading down to the start of the 2nd run shock him up a bit and his 2nd run was a bit more tentative. Tim was left with a bit to do after the first run sitting in 16th position. He had a better 2nd run letting the ski go a bit more but still made a couple of mistakes. The results are not out yet but it looks like a 15th and 16th for Mick and Tim. GS again tomorrow before two days of Slalom and then another GS and Slalom IPCAS race with some of the development squad getting their first race of the year.

New Season, new successes

The GB squad have had a great start to the season now with medals galore in Pitztal and Kuhtai. The medal tally so far is 14 for the squad with the medal charge coming from female squad members Jade Etherington, Kelly Gallagher and Anna Turney.

The team have now moved on to Sestriere where they will compete in European Cup races followed by IPCAS races - where GB wil have the chance to try out some new talent.

After the races close in Sestriere, the team will move back up to Austria for more race action in Abtenau.

In the meantime, below are some photos of the team in training in Italy - looks like Mick Brennan has been in the wars again!

8 December - breaking news! GB Squad awesome results.....

At the first alpine based races the new snow brought a storm of medals for the GB girls: in two SuperG races 4 medals!!

Jade Etherington and her guide Fiona Gingell skiing in the visually impaired category bagged two gold medals. Finishing behind Jade and Fi in one of the races was her team mate Kelly Gallagher. Kelly has just got together with a new guide Kev Edwards and had only just started skiing with each other for one day before the races, so this result is a credit to them both. Completing the medal haul was

Anna Turney who picked up a Bronze in the ladies sitting category.

Coach report:

"Yes, today was a pretty good start to the season.  After 48 hours of straight snowfall, it was looking unlikely that we would actually get the Super G races off as scheduled. However the skies cleared and the resort did an excellent job of preparing the slope for the race.  The GB squad was off to a shaky start when Kelly Gallagher crashed through the snow fence in her first run.  Although bruised and shaken Kelly and her temporary guide Kev Edwards came back for the second race to take second place. Jade Etherington and her guide Fiona Gingell stepped up to claim first place in the womens visually impaired category for both races and in doing so have now moved their points right up into the World Cup level in this discipline - an amazing achievement in their first speed events. Anna Turney had the run of her career, placing third in the womens sitting category and narrowing the gap between herself and the best in the world.  Anna is now within a few points of being World Cup qualified for Super G.

In the highly competitive mens competition Tim Farr continued his comeback from injury with two solid races, narrowly missing a top ten result by six tenths of a second. Mick Brennan completed two solid runs for the first time in his career, placing 16th and 12th respectively.

More good news.....the races next week in Kuhtai are now confirmed as on!"

Watch this space for more action tomorrow!!!

Official results for todays races are here: SuperG 1 and SuperG 2

Start of 2011-12 Ski Season

This week (17-18 November) saw the start of the northern hemisphere ski season kicking off with the two indoor slalom races at Landgraaf in the Netherlands and some early success for british duo Jade Etherington and Fiona Gingell. Jade is one of our best visually impaired skiers and scored a Silver in the first slalom race and a Bronze in the second against some good opposition which included Russian pairing Frantseva and Kolosovskaya. In the first of the two races (each race has three runs indoors) Jade finished her second run just 0.69 seconds behind Frantseva and in the second race she narrowly missed out on the Silver medal.

Jade and Fiona, giving an interview after their medal success in the Netherlands on 17 November.

Postponed! First GB Para-Snowboard Camp....

Regretably we have had to postpone our planned camp for para-snowboard racer development that was to be held from 22-29 October 2011 in Hintertux under the direction of Ben Kinnear.  Postponement is due to the date not being convenient for some attendees and we will now re-schedule for the new year. If you would like to be considered for the new camp please contact Dave Chugg as soon as possible.

British Success at NZ Winter Games

In the last week GB Athletes, Kelly Gallagher and her guide Charlotte Evans, Peter Dunning, Tim Farr and Ian Bishop have all been competing in New Zealand. While many of the top honours went to Australian athletes, the antipodeans were hotly pursued by our GB women and men.

In the Giant Slalom race on 23rd August Kelly and Charlotte, racing in the Visaully Impaired category grabbed the Silver behind Mellisa Perrine of Australia, trailling by just 2 seconds in a time of 1min53.56.  Tim Farr and Ian Bishop (mens sitting) got caught out by the tricky course conditions and failed to finish, while Peter Dunning battled through in a gutsy performance, after falling in the first run, to post the third fastest second run and finish 6th overall.

In the Slalom race on the 25th, Kelly and Charlotte did not start, but Peter and Tim came through to take 3rd and 4th places in the mens sit category. Again, conditions were tough and both had to recover from spills in their first runs to get onto the finish sheet.

Then in the last race of the meeting, Kelly and Charlotte hit silver again in the Super- G. The following report of this race comes from Yahoo :

Today's Adaptive Super G at Mt Hutt thrilled spectators with the high level of competition. Both winners of the men's events were more than two seconds faster than their nearest competition.

Australian adaptive athlete Cameron Rahles-Rahbula took out the Men's Super G Standing Race at Mt Hutt with an exceptional time of 1.04.09. In the Men's Super G Sitting Race, the USA's Heath Calhoun blew his competition away in 1.04.30. Unfortunately New Zealand paralympian Adam Hall failed to finish but fellow Kiwi Quinton Smith came sixth in the Men's Super G Sitting Race with a time of 1.19.48. Out of 15 competitors who entered the race, three failed to finish and one didn't start.

In the Women's Super G Visually Impaired Race, Australia's Melissa Perrine narrowly beat Great Britain's Kelly Gallagher to win with 1.15.15. Gallagher's time was 1.15.51. Korea's Jae Rim Yang came third with 1.29.65.

Perrine says "the Super G was a good course which had been cleaned up pretty well. I'm relatively happy with how I went."

Gallagher says being able to compete on the same race against able-bodied athletes had been a huge attraction for her. "We are really excited to be here at Mt Hutt. It's a nice way to end the Winter Games competition."

Calhoun says the race was well set out and he was very happy with snow conditions. "It made a nice run, it wasn't horribly difficult. "

The 2011-2012 British Disabled Ski Teams

We are pleased to announce the World Cup, European Cup, Adult and Youth Development Squads for the coming season.

Our World Cup Squad comprises Kelly Gallagher and her guide Charlotte Evans for the women and Timothy Farr for the men.  Our European Cup Squad features Anna Turney, Jade Etherington  and her guide Fiona Gingell and Peter Dunning. In adult development we have Ian Bishop, Asif Rahmani, Alex Krol and Frances Brown. While in the youth development squad we have Ben Millard, Ben Sneesby, Jack Titley, James Whitley and Menna Fitzpatrick.

If you are interested in joining either of our development squads then please contact the Team Manager at davechugg@disabilitysnowsport.org.uk.

Sorry to see you go!

We are sad to announce some retirements from the GB Squad for the coming season. From our long serving athletes squad, not only are we saying goodbye to Sean Rose (see below) but also Talan Skeels-Piggins and Jane Sowerby. This follows on also from the retirement of Russell Docker at the start of last season.

Ben Hooper and Martin Hewitt too, have also decided that their business commitments and other projects will mean that they do not have enough time to devote to skiing in the next years - we wish Martin good luck on Everest and Ben fair winds for his planned crossing of Europes largest glacier by snow kite.

We wish you all the very best and thank you for your hard work with the team.

Finally, we also say a very fond farewell to Jane Stevens - seen below giving a team talk in Hintertux. Jane has been the GB Coach since the Turn games and has helped guide the team to their current position in the rankings. Jane will be missed by us all, but will continue to follow the progress of the squad with great interest.

Our new coaches, Richard Pridday and Sue Greenberg will join us from Canada in October.

Team Manager - Blog

Visit the new "Team Manager blog" for day to day updates on behind the scenes activities. Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes - take a look! Topic for the first post - Para-snowboarders.....

Sean Rose.....moving on.

There is little doubt that Sean Rose is the best sit-skier that Great Britain has produced.

Sean joined the squad after he broke his back in 2000 in a freak skiing accident. Sean, an ex-RAF physical training instructor, took to skiing and then to ski racing like a duck to water.  Being in a wheelchair has not slowed him down, setting goals and reaching dreams are his way of life.

The list of achievements for Sean is comprehensive, here are a few of them: World and European Disabled Water Ski Champion 2005/06, British No.1 Disabled Alpine Ski Racer, two time Winter Paralympian, eight British titles, five World Cup medals - including being the first ever British World Cup Gold medallist (Downhill 2010) - and Mono Skier X Bronze medallist in 2011.

It is difficult to sum up Seans achievements in a short article, but sufficient to say that he will be sorely missed as he now retires from full-time Winter athlete status.  This doesn’t mean we will be saying goodbye to Sean though. Far from it, Sean is going to carry on working with the team to help us develop our new racers.  He also has some great projects in the pipeline: Snow Kiting across Iceland’s largest glacier for instance and a return to Winter X-games challenges.

No British skier has come close to what Sean has managed to achieve in the last ten years. Thank you Sean – it’s been a pleasure working with you.

Let's leave the last word to Sean: 

 "I've had a fantastic and successful eight years with the British Team. I've felt proud to represent my country and travel the World with a great bunch of Teammates. I've achieved many of the goals I set out to do with hardwork and perseverance and feel I can hold my head high. A "Big Thanks" to my coach Jane Stevens, Team management, my loving wife, family and sponsors who have all supported my dreams and aspirations. Although, it's been difficult at times being away from home so often and now family commitments are just too great to carry on fulltime racing. Saying that, this isn't the end and I'm so excited to be involved in a new project. Myself, Tim and Ben are currently training to Snowkite across Europe's biggest glacier in Iceland next year, something that will test us all to the limits of endurance and show everyone what's possible if you put your mind to it. I'm loving learning a new sport that's packed with adrenaline. So life goes on but just in a different direction!"

If you would like to get in touch with Sean, and especially if you are able to help Sean, Tim and Ben find a production comapny for their Icelandic adventure then please visit his website: www.seanrose.co.uk. 

You can now support us by texting Just Giving...

Just Giving has set set up a brand new way to donate to charity - Text Giving.

By texting BDST01 £10 to 70070 your donation to the British Disabled Ski Team comes straight to us - all of it! Be the first to donate to us by text!

If texting is not for you, then you can still use the conventional method of sending a cheque to the address below or following the link to our page on the Just Giving website

DSUK National Skiathon - Milton Keynes (17 May 2011)

On May 17^th, members of the British Disabled Ski Team Fran Brown and Sean Rose along with Team Manager Dave Chugg and honorary supporters for the day Richard Davis and Katie Cunnea are taking part in the DSUK National Skiathon at Milton Keynes raising awareness of DSUK and trying to raise money for the Team by skiing 666 runs of the indoor slope. You can support their efforts by visiting http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/BDST.

Find out more about the National Skiathon by emailing Sophie Wood (sophiewood@disabilitysnowsport.org.uk)

The Great Britain Team achieves overall 8th in the Nation Rankings of European Cup (2010/11)

In a great show of continued focus and effort (notwithstanding a number of long term injury athletes) GB still managed to prove itself against the competition in Europe this season achieving its highest position yet in the European Cup competitiions. They moved into the top 10 nations  finishing the season in 8th place

2011 IPCAS Austrian Nationals - St Lambrecht, Austria (04 - 06 Mar 2011)

Medals for Gallagher and Turney in the Austrian Nationals...

The Super G races on Sunday saw VI athlete Gallagher and Guide Charlotte Evans (left) continue their medal success with a silver in these Austrian Nationals.

Photos by Sean Power

In equally good form was sit-skier Anna Turney (right) who was giving no quarter to get over the line in Bronze postion in her category - exactly the same time as Germany's Anna-Lena Forster and only 5.5 seconds off the winner Claudia Loesch from the home team of Austria. 

"I'm pleased with the Super G results at the Austrian Nationals and hoping to continue the success in the Europa Cup finals next week" said Turney

The team make the long drive from their training base in Stubai, Austria to the venue of the  Europa Cup finals in La Molina, Spain.