As per usual, things
didn’t run as smoothly as we would have liked when we arrived in
Toronto. Car rental “issues” forced us into hiring three Toyota
Corolla’s. With 5 bags and 120kg of luggage each, you can imagine how
difficult it was to squeeze all of it into the cars. Somehow we managed,
and we set off in our fleet of Corolla’s.
(Just part of our 750kg worth of
gear!)
Training
kicked off on Wednesday, and the course ran smoothly. We had
qualifications on Thursday, where I qualified in 13th place. The top 16
women and top 32 men progressed to finals on Thursday, so I was excited
to once again have a chance at racing head-to-head.
(The start)
(The Australians in course inspection)
(The track)
On
Friday, the course froze overnight and sped up considerably. In my
first training run, I was not expecting to hit the speeds that I did.
There were crashes all over the place right from the get go! People were
overshooting jumps, landing on the flat or even on the upside of the
next jump.
When
finals started with the men, I had to stop watching after three heats!
In each heat, men collided and crashed before the first turn. There were
injuries all over the place, and my heat was still yet to come.
I have to say that
although I tried to convince myself that everything would be okay, there
was still an element of fear in the back of my mind. Usually I am able
to switch that ‘sane’ little voice off in my head and just race, but
every now and then, watching people crash and being carted away in the
bucket by paramedics brings me back to bad memories of my own injury two
years ago (torn ligament in my knee). I guess it is a mental issue I
still need to overcome, particularly when conditions are difficult like
they were on Friday.
Once
I got to the gate, I think subconsciously my body had already decided
to ski in safe mode. And at this level of competition, if you’re not
willing to give it 100% right from the start, you’ve got no chance of
progressing through to the next round… unless you do a Bradbury of
course!
Besides
the fact that I am safe and well, skiing safe didn’t pay off this time,
and I didn’t manage to progress to the semi finals. I finished up in
13th place, which was still a great result (my equal best result for the
season).
(13th fastest qualifier)
(Skis and more skis....)
(Marcos making my skis nice and fast
for the race)
(Finals)
The
race ended with Chris Del Bosco from Canada winning the men’s, and Ana
Woerner of Germany winning the women’s. Sadly there were a large number
of injuries by the end of the race, including a few blown knees,
concussions, a torn elbow, torn ankle, groin injury, and I’m sure a few
more I don’t know about!
(Three cripples still in high spirits
after the race)
(Sami's battle wounds after her crash
in training)
The
team now has a 5-day break, which I’m very excited about after a
difficult 6 weeks of racing. I am heading back to Europe and spending 5
days in London. It will be nice to get away from snow and the mountains
for a little while, and spend some time in the city.
