1969 – man set foot on the moon, Concorde took to the skies and the Royal Navy Alpine Ski Team won the Inter-Services. 2011 – the moon landings are a dim memory consigned to the history books and Concorde is a museum piece but the Royal Navy Men’s Alpine Ski Team won the Inter-Service Snow Sports Championships!
The 42 years between victories were not years spent in a white, barren wilderness but they were peppered with individual successes for generations of team members across the 4 disciplines of Downhill, Super-Giant Slalom, Giant Slalom and Slalom. However, the team has lacked the strength in depth required to perform consistently well across all disciplines in order to win the overall championship. It has always been a challenge to get the best skiers from the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines together for the 2 weeks of training and the 2 weeks of competitions that lead up to the final week of competition at Inter-Service level. A solution to this was to grow a large pool of competitive skiers from which to draw on and this has been the team’s aim over the last 5-6 years. In order to grow that pool of athletes from the recreational skiers who gain a taste for racing at the Royal Navy Alpine Ski and Snowboarding Championships one requires an instructor who is able to deal with the broad range of ability and who is committed to the team in the long term. That man is Arthur Steiner, an Austrian Race Trainer, and without him the RN team would not have tasted success this year.
Success in the men’s team competition was rooted in the performance of the team in the speed events of Downhill and Super-Giant Slalom (Super-G). Carrying the most race points, the team has built upon its experience in these events over the last 3 years by participating in the Army Downhill and the Royal Navy’s Super-G during the respective single service competitions. Placing second in the Inter-Service event behind the Army but ahead of the RAF, the team faced a close competition in the Super-G. Skiing hard on Super-G day, 5 of the RN team broke into the top 10 splitting apart the 3 Army and 2 RAF skiers. Moreover, the Army men faced the dilemma of failing to get a minimum of 4 of their nominated team of 6 men down the course which meant that they could no longer qualify for an overall team event. With 2 days and 4 races to go, this threw the RN and RAF into direct competition for the overall championship. The RAF fought hard but, bearing in mind that the 4 fastest times from a team of 6 are all important, although their 2 fastest men squeezed ahead of their respective numbers in the RN, the reverse was true for the number 3 and 4 positions. As a result, they could not generate sufficient points in the remaining events to break the RN’s lead. In all it was a fantastic team effort from the RN but there were some stunning individual results. The RN Men’s Captain, Lt Chris Sharrott, placed in the top 5 in all the races and gained a podium 3rd in the Super-G. This consistency led to him coming 2nd in the overall competition and he was closely followed by Lt Cdr Alex Johnson in 4th place and Lt Rob Corcoran in 5th with Lt Cdr Debs Bhattacharya in 6th place.
However, all 6 men achieved top 10 positions with Lt Thomas Hetherington in 8th and Capt Stu Hamilton (RM) in 9th place.

The challenge in growing a pool of racers for selection to the Ladies Alpine Team has always been greater than that faced by the men and the ladies were only able to front 5 skiers this year. Of the 5 only 2, Lt Holly Dennis and CPOPTI Carol Strong, have been in the team for more than 2 seasons. That did not prevent Lt Helen Taylor putting in a very gutsy performance in her second season, following a very nasty accident in week 1. Cpl Hannah Trudgeon was also enjoying her second season after a break of 3 years and was hot on Helen’s heels in most of the events. Although in her first season, Lt Katie Steele chased the other ladies hard proving that we have the elements required for success in the future. The ladies overall results left Holly Dennis in that most cruel of positions; 4th place. That result did not do justice to her podium finishes in Giant Slalom and Slalom where she came 2nd nor did it reflect her 4th place in the Super-G and 6th place in the Downhill. This was undoubtedly the strongest RN Ladies individual result in years. Missing the first 2 training weeks, Carol Strong put in a fine performance, placing 10th in Downhill, 8th in Super-G and Giant Slalom and 6th in Slalom. The fact that Helen Taylor placed 11th and 9th in the Downhill and Super-G respectively demonstrates that Ladies Team is growing in strength.

The 2011 season was by no means the end of a development programme and we certainly cannot rest on our laurels. However, it did mark the beginning of a new impetus to generate winning teams in the future. Success breeds success and, although by this time next year 3 of this year’s winning Men’s team will have left the Service, their places will be filled by keen young skiers who trained with the team this season. If you want to take your skiing to that level, contact Lt Cdr Debs Bhattacharya, the Alpine Discipline Manager, at GANNET-CO@mod.uk or on 93263 4370 / 01292 67 4370.

Full Ski Results 1 Feb 2011 13:33:00 GMT

Clcik here to view the full results from the 2011 Alpine Championships..