 Four PGS teams took part in the 2011 English Schools Ski Association (ESSKIA) Regional Qualifier at Southampton on Saturday 17th September. The event was well supported, with over 140 children from 37 school teams in the South of England competing at Southampton. PGS had its most successful qualifier ever, with a Girls and a Boys teams qualifying through to the English Schools Age Group Finals at Stoke, on Saturday 8th October and a Girls and a Boys team also qualifying through to the English Schools Open Championship at Stoke, on Sunday 9th October 2011. The full results from the Qualifier can be downloaded at 2011 ESSKIA Southampton Results for SCHOOLS and an extract of the PGS individual performances is shown in the table below:
Summary of PGS Individual Times:
Mixed Team Cat I (Yr 6 and under)
Matthew Walton (49) George Downing (50)
Christie Palmer (51)
Nadine Hugecova (52)
The Cat I Mixed team failed to get the required number of times recorded in Run 2 to post a team aggregate and will therefore not progress any further this year, however, all of these children were competing in this event for the first time and should be very proud of their performance - a great learning experience for future years.
Girls Team Cat II (Yr 7 / 8)
Cameron Manson (61) Louisa Palmer (62) Anna Caldwell (63) Nicole Hugecova (64)
The Cat II Girls team (our first ever Girls team) put in an excellent aggregate team time to comfortably win their category at Southampton, guaranteeing their place in the Age Group Finals at Stoke on Saturday 8th October.
Boys Team Cat III (Yr 9 / 10)
Sam Williams (109) Al Harding (110) Rowan Dixon (111) Ben Jackson (112)
The Cat III Boys team put in an excellent performance to come first in their category, ahead of a strong Reeds team, guaranteeing them a place in the National Age Group Finals.
Boys Team Cat IV (Yr 11 and above)
Ed Harding (125) Seth Jackson (126) Harry Staley (127) Patrick Caldwell (128)
The Cat IV Boys team were up against some very strong competition in their age group and unfortunately, despite fine individual performances all round, will not be progresssing any further this year. It's hard to pick out any individual performances, but special congratulations to Anna and Patrick Caldwell, both of whom were "skiing up" in older age group teams and performed very well. Many thanks also to Louisa Palmer, who is unable to take up her place in the finals at Stoke due to other school sporting committments, we thank her for her contribution to the qualifying event.
Availability allowing, we generally try as best we can to take the same team that qualified through to the Age Group Finals. The teams going to Stoke for Saturday 8th October will therefore be:
Girls Team Cat II (Yr 7 / 8)
Cameron Manson (8) Nadine Hugecova (5) Anna Caldwell (4) Nicole Hugecova (7) Boys Team Cat III (Yr 9 / 10) Sam Williams (10) Al Harding (10) Rowan Dixon (10) Ben Jackson (10) __________________________________________
OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP
Based on the performances at the Southampton Qualifier, PGS has also been invited to send a Girls and a Boys team to the English Schools Open Championship on Sunday 9th October. There are no age categories applied, so for this event we form teams based on the fastest individual times recorded in the Regional Qualifier across all age groups, as follows:
Girls Open Team Cameron Manson Nadine Hugecova Anna Caldwell Nicole Hugecova Boys Open Team Selection was extremely competitive for the Boys Open team this year, with less than 0.08 of a second separating the best individual run times of three boys (Harry Staley, Rowan Dixon and Ed Harding) vying for the final place in the team of four. Harry Staley gets the place by virtue of his best individual time of 12.36. The team is therefore:
Sam Williams
Al Harding
Seth Jackson
Harry Staley
Harry was a great supporter of the Open team last year, when he acted as travelling reserve and as a forerunner, so I know Rowan and Ed will both wish Harry the best of luck.
Finally.....
Commiserations to all the skiiers who have not got to the finals this year; those whose journey ended at the SASA Interschools competition in May and those who made it through to the ESSKIA Regional Qualifier. Thank you very much for your support throughout the year.
Regards,
Matt Williams
25 September 2011
__________________________________________ Notes:
1. The teams representing PGS at the ESSKIA Regional Qualifier were selected back in May, based on the best individual times recorded at the SASA Interschools Competition. The selection guidelines that were applied were:
2. ESSKIA Qualifying and National Competitions are team events and have no individual awards. Team results are based on two separate runs and are calculated on the aggregate of the best three individual times from Run 1 and the best three individual times from Run 2. |