The British Telemark Team have just finished their last World Cup race in Geilo, Norway today. They had three days of racing, a Parallel Sprint, Sprint and finally a Classic. This weekend was also the World Junior Championships which occur once a year, meaning there was a high number of racers at this event. The parallel was shown on Norwegian TV on Saturday evening.

“It was great to see the Parallel shown on Norweigan TV. It is great for the promotion of the sport and is a fantastic step towards telemark becoming Olympic.” said Anna

Louis, the only British junior competing, skied fantastically. He got a special congratulations from Andreja, the assistant TD for how well he jumped in these races. This is his first season of telemark racing so it is fantastic to see him gain his second World Cup top 30 finish in the Classic today. In the junior category he was 17th in the Sprint and 16th in todays Classic, well done Louis!

James finished 24th in the Sprint after a great second run. A lot of people, him included, crashed after the jump in the Classic today meaning he finished in 27th place. Anna had two good races finishing in 12th place in the Sprint and 14th in the Classic. Unfortunately none of the team made it into the top 8 women or top 16 men to qualify for the parallel.

James will travel home tomorrow, ending his first telemark World Cup season. He has improved hugely throughout this season and is one to look out for next year! Anna and Louis are travelling to Rjukan tomorrow for the final World Cup races of the season.

The conditions for the Sprint were perfect. Anna skied a good first run, but did not follow it up with such a strong second run leaving her in 11th place. James skied well overall but he made a couple of mistakes finishing in 20th place. This was Louis’s second World Cup and he handled the pressure well against a very strong field of racers. Unfortunately a mistake at the jump on the second run meant he did not finish.

“I was really gutted to make such a stupid mistake but it is early days and this was a valuable experience” said Louis about his day.

For the parallel, the top 32 men and top 16 women raced. This fortunately meant that everyone had the opportunity to participate. Anna was pleased to ski well in the gates and it was very close up to the rap (360o banked turn), unfortunately her opponent just won both runs so she did not progress. Louis met Olle Collberg from Sweden in the first round who is a very strong skier and was also knocked out. James met one of the Swiss team in his first round and knocked him out in a tight race, progressing into the top 16 where he met Olle. James skied amazingly and knocked Olle out to progress into the top 8. Unfortunately he met the top seed, Tobi Muller, he had a surprisingly tight race against the World number one. Therefore finishing in 5th equal place, his best result yet, the best result for a British man in the parallel and in any World Cup!

“It was great to be competing side by side with the best telemarkers in the world, I really enjoyed the course and felt I skied the best I have all season. Hopefully I can build on this for future races” said James.

The team have now travelled to Norway for another series of World Cup races in Geilo. These are also the World Junior Championships, which Louis is competing in. Come on GB!