Ski Success for Preparatory School Pupil

---

New Hall Preparatory School pupil Samuel Jones has just returned back from spending a month with the British Ski Academy in Les Houches, France which involved living and training with other enthusiastic and talented skiers from the UK.
 
The schedule at the Academy is a gruelling mix of intensive daily ski training, fitness training, video analysis and also full time schooling. The ski instructors had previously recognised that Sam had a raw talent and wanted to see if this could be developed technically to progress him to become a racer and to prepare him for the Inter School Championship where he would be representing New Hall.

This competition was held over two days and consisted of three races per day with each competitor’s two best times going towards their score. There were clear blue skies on the day of the races but with the temperatures dropping down to 15oc it made for hard, icy race conditions. Over the two days of demanding competition Samuel achieved his best finishing positions yet, including a number of top 10 finishes which gave him a final position of 10th overall. This is a fantastic achievement for his first season against a field of 90 competitors.

In recognition of his achievement, Samuel was invited with five other Inter School race entrants to compete in an International meeting, the Aiglon College Cup in Vailars, Switzerland which was taking place just before he was due to return to the UK. Despite being exhausted from the previous racing Samuel managed to secure 9th position in a final of 40 competitors including French and Swiss racers. Samuel has been asked back to the British Ski Academy for the whole of next season to build on the progress made this year. He will be stepping up his training and competing as a junior in international races which take place on some of the toughest slopes on the men’s downhill courses. We wish Samuel every success.