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We have arrived to Airolo, Switzerland to commence phase two of our Northern Hemisphere tour. This last week will go down as one of the most challenging in my years of coaching!
To begin we concluded our Nor - Am Cup mogul competition at Canada Olympic Park, Calgary. The event provided an ideal opportunity for the athletes to clean out the cobwebs and get into full competition mode.
The newly constructed moguls course at COP would be one of the most difficult I have ever seen in the world (see photo's attached) 240 meters long, top 1/2 at 26 degrees and the bottom 1/2 at 30 degrees in pitch with snowmaking top to bottom. By day four the course for Dual moguls competition was blue ice!
Just getting down this course without falling was a feat in itself, at least 1/2 of the best junior mogul skiers in the world fell!
The feedback I received from all the US and Canadian coaches said it was the steepest course on Nor- Ams in many years
In total there were 63 men and 39 women competitors from Canada, USA, Japan and Australia.
| Day 1 single mogul results as follows: |
| Emma Chapman-Davies |
12th (qualified 15th for finals) |
| Nicole Parks |
31st |
| Rob Lovick |
24th |
| Sam Hall |
36th |
| Rohan Chapman-Davies |
42nd |
| David Graham |
60th |
| Day 2 Dual moguls competition results as follows: |
| Emma Chapman-Davies |
26th |
| Nicole Parks |
31st |
| Rob Lovick |
24th (qualified 24th for finals and lost first round dual elimination) |
| Sam Hall |
36th |
| Rohan Chapman-Davies |
42nd |
| David Graham |
62nd |
Overall I felt the results were fantastic considering they only had 6 full days of top to bottom mogul training prior to the event and the fact they have never skied a course that steep in their entire careers, there were a lot of positives to come out of the event as all were putting down top to bottom runs in training on both event days gaining in confidence with every run...
It was one wake up call I don't think they will ever forget!
The most important thing is there were no major injuries from all the competitors (which amazes me!) and our athletes are ready to dig in for the next phase!
On top of all this and just to make my life even more difficult the Europa Cup event in Roccaraso, Italy was cancelled on the morning of the single event (only 48hrs before we departed Canada for Europe) I spent those two nights (early hours of the mornings) scrambling to cancel all our accommodation reservations in Roccaraso and Rome as well having to find an alternate training solution for the athletes until the next Europa Cup in Chatel, France....
The good news is I have been able to source a great training alternative in Airolo, Switzerland thanks to my good friend Andrea Rinaldi who is a coach with the Italian world cup mogul team. We have fantastic accommodation at the Hotel Forni where we stayed last year and there is a mogul course already to go!
We started day one on snow today training alongside the Italy World Cup team and the course is in great shape, 270 meters long and 23 degrees in pitch. we will now continue full training on the 2007 Junior world championships course until January 21, there will be two Swiss/ Italian Cup single mogul competitions January 19 and 20 before we depart for Chatel, France to prepare for the Europa Cup events
With all the changes to the schedule and nightmare adjustments I can tell you this option has worked out better than I ever imagined and I could not be happier!
The athletes are quite jetlagged at the moment and will need another day or two to fully adjust to Europe time.....I am looking forward to the upcoming training phase on a course we have skied before and know well!
That's all to report on for now and will have another update after the Swiss/ Italian cup events
I hope you are enjoying the warm weather back home!
Kind Regards,
Toppa
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