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We had to wait a while until we got round to skiing!  Awards were given to girls for their achievement in all sorts of sports, such as Badminton, Hockey, Archery, Swimming, Tennis, and Football (to name just a few).

Eventually, our time had come - we won the Team of the Year trophy!  Back in February, I had compiled a video of the British Schoolgirls' Races (when we won 3 out of the 4 trophies available to us as a team) and that was used in the presentation to describe our achievement.

Florence, Miriam and I were really proud to win the Team of the Year 2013!

King Edward VI Handsworth School, Ski Team - British Schoolgirls' Races 2013

(By Victoria Bell)

 

I was the Captain of the School Ski Team which also included Florence Bell and Miriam Korsgen.  This was to be our 5^th time at the races and definitely my last since it was my final year at school, so we were all determined to give it our best shot.

 

Our team met up in Flaine, France on the evening of Saturday January 26^th.  Miriam had arrived with my mother that afternoon, from the UK.  My father had flown in to Innsbruck where Florence and I met up with him following some races in Italy and he drove us to Flaine.

 

We got up really early on Sunday morning in order to get-in some training in readiness for the following 2 days of racing.  The conditions were good on Sunday but it was a very different story by Monday morning - we could barely get the car through the snowdrift outside the garage of our apartment.  The course was similarly covered in a thick blanket of snow and the race was delayed for a couple of hours so that it could be made safe.  Finally, after a great deal of effort from all the coaches, the Giant Slalom race was able to get underway.

 

We had a team plan and we stuck to it.  Out of the 52 teams and 156 girls competing, the three of us did our jobs and our school won the Giant Slalom competition on Monday.  Going into Tuesday, and the Slalom race, we had a commanding lead for the Overall titles, so the strategy was to take absolutely no risks in either of the 2 runs.  We spent the time, when we weren't actually racing, assembled at the provisional timing board, trying to keep on top of the results and points etc to work out where we were in the rankings as the event progressed so that we could adjust our strategy to suit - it was great for mental maths!  The tactics proved perfect because, as well as retaining the GS title from last year, we added to it with the Overall Schools trophy and the Overall Team trophy, beating the other 51 teams in the competition hands-down.  We also finished 3^rd Overall in Slalom.

 

Our competitors included past winners like Strathallen from Scotland whose 3 team members are either past or current members of the British Children's and Junior teams.  And Surbiton High School from Surrey who also had A & B teams made up of British Children's and Junior team members.  Surbiton is the Alma Mata of Britain's number 1 female ski racer, "Dancing on Ice" star Chemmy Alcott so beating them like this was amazing.  Other schools competing included "Ivy League" public schools such as St Mary's Ascot, Leady Eleanor Holles and Cheltenham Ladies' College.  We also beat the famous specialist sports schools of Reeds and Milfield.

 

In winning the Overall Team and Overall Schools titles, we beat the historic skiing clubs of Kandahar and the Downhill Only Club both of which were started in the Swiss Alps in the 1920s and which remain active in the Alps today.  We also out-raced the British Boarding School of Aiglon College which is based in the Swiss Alps.

 

Individually, and as a team, we came away with 6 trophies and 17 medals (12 of them gold) - 23 prizes in total.  This is a new record for total prizes won by any individual school/team in the 54 year history of the competition.

 

The prizes we won are as follows:-

 

TEAM

1^st Overall School Team

1^st Overall Team

1^st Giant Slalom

 

INDIVIDUAL

1^st Overall British Schoolgirl                          Florence

1^st U18 British Schoolgirl                                Florence

1^st U21 British Schoolgirl                                Victoria

 

17 MEDALS

3 x gold                 Overall School Team

3 x gold                 Overall Team

3 x gold                 Giant Slalom Team

3 x bronze           Slalom Team

1 x gold                 Overall British Schoolgirl (Florence)

1 x bronze           Overall British Schoolgirl (Victoria)

1 x silver               Overall Giant Slalom (Florence)

1 x gold                 U18 British Schoolgirl (Florence)

1 x gold                 U21 British Schoolgirl (Victoria)

 

TOTAL PRIZES:  23