Mars Drinks Sponsorship

www.marsdrinks.com

To be a contender at the top level of any sport you need to train hard, to be the best you need to train harder and more than anybody else. Disabled skiing is no different to any other sport. If I am to get to the top and to the Winter Paralympics 2010 I need time on the snow and in the race gates training as well as the race experience and results. To achieve this however all costs money and unfortunately in
Britain there is little funding for winter sports on the whole let alone disabled alpine sports. Without sponsorship and or funding I would not even be able to attempt to achieve my goal and dream of reaching the Vancouver Winter Paralympics in 2010.

I am delighted that Mars Drinks have put their faith in me and are going to help support my ambitions of going for glory in Vancouver. To have such a widely recognised brand behind me is unbelievable and very encouraging for me and disabled sports on the whole. I hope that with their support I will be able to go on and start winning some medals in the not so distant future.

While racing or free skiing you need to keep your energy levels up if not that is when mistakes are made and injuries can happen. In racing there can be a lot of waiting around between runs and your energy levels, especially in the cold can drop dramatically and this could be the difference between winning and losing a race. This is another reason why I am delighted to be sponsored by Mars Drinks, the chocolate milk is the perfect thing to give me a quick boost of energy on the mountain.

As an amature athlete to be sponsored by such a big name is so important. I would like to thank everybody at Mars Drinks for all their help and support they have given me already. I am honoured to ski with such a distinguished and leading company’s brand and logo.

Disabled skiing

Disabled skiers ripping it up in deep powder, amazing. [http://digg.com/videos/sports/Disabled_skiing/blog]

read more | digg story

1st Race Pitztal

Pitztal 1^st Race

After a couple of weeks work and rest back at home it was off to Pitztal for the 1^st Europa cup race of the season. To save some of  the all important pennies I was to keep Andy, a volunteer for the week, company on the long 11 hr drive to take the team van out for the season. On the way up to
Pitztal, Austria was blessed with probably the first real dump of snow of the season. This led to some great skiing and training for the four days leading up to the races.

With this been the first race of the season I was eager to impress and get a good start. However I was to go last out of everybody in the first race no.121 by the time that I got in to the starting gate after changing my ski and watching the last couple of people before me crash out early on in the course the nerves and adrenalin were high. I was off to a reasonable start and looked like I might reach my goal of finishing and qualifying for the 2^nd run, but then it all went wrong when I hit a big rut left by all the 120 skiers that had gone before me on the same course and bucketed my rig spinning me in to some deep powder. I got up in the hope to still be able to finish the race but my out rigger froze on me stopping me from been able to push back up out of the powder and around the gate to finish.

Day two of Pitztal was GS and having done got one race out the way the nerves were not so bad but after the disappointment of not finishing the slalom my aim was just to finish which I did but in a time that wasn’t going to worry the top of the leaders board. Day three had meant to be a super G but was changed to a GS due to the run that we were doing. This gave me a 2^nd chance to qualify in the GS for the 2^nd run and get some earned points. It was a better run than the day before and more aggressive but not it was not enough after getting late on a gate I got out of the race line and caught some softer snow slowing me down. I missed out of the 2^nd run by less than a second. That is ski racing for you though. Races are won and lost on your race line, the wax you put on your ski and your mental attitude been able to trust and believe in yourself and equipment.

Not everybody’s races had been a disappointment though. Sean Roes got a couple of top 10s and Jo w our only female sit skier competing at the moment came in 2^nd and 3^rd in the GS. Congratulations to the other skiers in the team for putting in some good results in a strong field.

The Season so far

The season kicked off in November with a two week pre season training camp with the British team in
Hintertux, Austria. The team settled in well to training and it was great to get back on the snow after a long summer. Of course with it been early season in
Europe the conditions on the glacier were icy with the weather each day continuously changing from whiteouts to sunshine. It was great to get the season on the way and have some and time with the team to learn off each other and push ourselves. I would like to thank all the buddies and Red Point Holidays for helping out and doing the organising for the two weeks.

I will be catching up with the rest of the season in more posts coming shortly please come back to find out what I have been up to.