On Saturday, the 10th of August, the 2019 Scottish Roller Ski Championships took place.
This exciting event was organised by Snowsport Scotland in partnership with the Fife Roller Ski Club (FRSC).

Racing took place at the Fife Cycle Park in Lochgelly, with championship races from 3.2 – 9.6 km in length as well as a Novice 1 km race and a 6.4 km Open Event.

The day started with a training and “Come Try Session” on the race course with coaching from Snowsport Scotland coaches. The “Come Try Session” was open to all ages and abilities to give roller skiing a shot for the first time or to take advantage of the coaching expertise to build and improve roller ski skills.

The racing kicked off with the 1 km Novice Race around two laps of the Fife Cycle Park’s 500 metre “hair dryer” loop. The Novice Race is open to all ages provided competitors have not previously raced in more than three roller ski races. In exception to this rule, Rasmus Ipsen (U12) of Huntly Nordic Ski Club (HNSC) was permitted to race as a novice despite extensive race experience due to a broken wrist inhibiting pole use. After a well matched double pole start, the pack split out with a leading pack of two racing for the gold and silver and a chasing pack of three battling it out for the bronze. Jack Rausher (U12) of FRSC pipped Rasmus Ipsen by three seconds to claim first place. Hannah McHugh (U16) of FRSC crossed the line third to claim first novice women followed by Ewan Macadam (U12) of FRSC taking third in the novice men’s race. Kirstie MacLeod (Senior) finished in sixth place overall, behind her cousin Anderw James Elder (U12) taking second novice women. Third novice women went to Astrid Ipsen (U12) of HNSC, who finished in eighth overall. Big shout out to Ruben Blake who took on the Novice course having tried roller skiing for the first time an hour and a half before the start of the race.

After a short break, the U12 and U14, 3.2 km championship race was underway on the full 1.6 km loop. A number of the U12 novice racers decided to go for the double and also compete in their age group championship race. For a number of the athletes, the race was the first time they had used Marwe 610s, which were the race pool roller ski for the event. The British Nordic Development Squad athletes in the pack took to the front of the race with Logan Duncan (U14) and Jakob Ipsen (U14) of HNSC taking an early lead followed by Sophie Forth (U12) of HNSC. They were chased down by Rebecca Dargie (U12) of Cairngorm Biathlon and Nordic Ski Club (CBNSC). Logan led the majority of the race, but was out sprinted at the finish by Jakob after a tactical push from Jakob on the second last climb, they took silver and gold respectively in the U14 men’s race. The bronze in the men’s U14 went to Andrew James Elder. Sophie and Rebecca came in third and fourth overall taking gold and silver in the women’s U12 race. In the men’s U12 Harry Townsend of CBNSC pushed out FRSC’s Jack Rausher (novice champion) to take the gold and Hugh Gilliland of HNSC took bronze ahead of Ewan Macadam of FRSC.

This year an Open Event of 6.4 km was added to the programme as a stepping stone between the Novice Race and the senior championship races and was ran at the same time as the U16 and U18 women’s race of the same distance. Ida Ewald (U16) took the gold for

The women’s U16 and first place overall. In the Open Event, Logan Duncan took the gold, finishing second overall behind Ida. Harry Osbaldiston (U18) of CBNSC took the silver and Jakob Ipsen took the bronze. The fastest time, of 00:17:59, over the 6.4 km course was posted by Callum Deboys from GB Para Nordic, which he completed as training. Special mention also goes to Ana Amores who completed one lap of the race after only trying roller skiing for the first time during the “Come Try Session”.

The final championship race of the day was the six lap, 9.6 km Senior, Veteran and Super Veteran Race as well as the U16 and U18 men’s race. The leading group pulled away during the first lap and broke down into a leading group of three and a chasing group of four. Fergus Newman (Senior) of HNSC tried to organise the other three athletes in the chase group, Zander Bohle (Senior), Joseph Rosenfeld (U18) and James Slimon (U18), to work together to close the gap on the leading group of Thibault Mondon (Senior) of Team Grenoble, Hamish Wolfe (Senior) of HNSC and Oliver Newman (Senior) of HNSC.

In a close fought race, Hamish Wolfe burnt off Thibault Mondon to finish first overall and take gold in the senior men’s race. Thibault took the silver and Oliver Newman the bronze. Joseph Rosenfeld came in fourth and took the gold in the men’s U18 race followed by James Slimon who took silver. Sam Bojorski of the London Region Nordic Ski Club (LRNSC) took the U18 men’s bronze finishing in seventh overall behind Fergus Newman.

The women’s senior race was won by Aline Arnould of Team Grenoble who finished in twelfth place overall. Aline was followed home by Annika Flynn and then Holly Rees-lay of CBNSC to complete the podium for the senior women.

In the men’s vet race, Stephen Perry from the RAF skied the majority of the race by himself taking the gold and ninth place overall. Silver went to Christian Ewald of Highland Nordic and bronze to Andrzej Bojorski of LRNSC.

The women vet race was won by Beata Nowok of Western Track, who finished sixteenth overall battling out the first few laps of the race with the men’s super vet winner Roger Homyer of Highland Nordic. Roy Young of HNSC took the silver in the men’s super vet category.

Kieran Forth of HNSC, the youngest competitor in the race, took the U16 men’s gold finishing in eighteenth place overall.

 

Written by Sarah Young