25th January 2012 at 05:46PM

The days have been long and hard at the Welsh Champs, with 120 competitors in GS and 100 in slalom, my original plan of training each afternoon was thwarted by a dodgy few days.

We had great prep for these races, on the 23rd we had a slalom timing session followed by race simulation with the whole Ambition Team on the GS race piste. Some of the kids giving the juniors a run for their money and Imi taking the fastest time of the session, much to the disappointment of the boys (who made some dodgy excuses about ruts - apparently our 1999 & 2000 births make big holes - Nat).

Anyway, the GS race was set to be a cracker with awesome bibs for the boys and an even better penalty than we expected. The girls race seemed ok on paper also with Imi and Thomasine going for the top spots. 

The day started off with a 2 hour delay after timing failure. So we waited and kicked off at midday.... Imi came down with an ok run to place 4th, while Thomasine skied brilliantly to keep in touch with the leaders. All seemed ok, although the holds did drag on for a while. The girls had a few problems with the soft snow on the second run and while Thomasine recorded another great result with 90 points, Imi did not start due to a back problem after being whipped by a gate on the first run. 

By this time it was 3.20 and the TD decided the course was not in great shape - (there were 2 gates that needed work). Myself and the referee asked for 10 minutes to get the slope right and after sweating a few litres and calling other coaches in from the start we were ready to go. Peter, Barney, Kieran and Luke had all made the top 30, were all within 4.5 seconds of the leader and were all on to make PB results - something that would have really helped this young group.

But in true IDIOT style, the TD decided not to even come and check the work done on the piste, instead cancelling the boys race. All the prep, shovelling and graft wasted without even checking. The time was 3.45, we had 55 men to go and the slope was in better condition than the first run, we had the blue dye out and there were people working their butts off to make it happen. I spoke to the TD who said he didnt understand what i was saying... i think i was using a universal language.

Anyway, today went a little better, we managed to finish the race at least. AND IMI WON making a 64, her best slalom result to date!!!! She was seeded about 8th and went into the lead after the first run before skiing a great 2nd run to win overall. Thomasine also made a PB result, 103 points, another step in the right direction.

In the boys race, we never got to see Kieran show his skill after his ski came off on the pitch, Barney and Peter got to the finish however, making the top 30 in the process and Aza negotiated the ruts extremely well to keep in the mix. On the 2nd run, Barney was alike a man possessed, moving from 22nd into 8th, with the 3rd fastest second run, awesome skiing from him. Peter had a few mistakes but still skied a decent run and Aza scored his best result by a mile, hanging in when the going got tough and improving all the time - Great job Max - he is doing all of this with true determination while praying for a growth spurt!!!

Onto Megeve for SG races tomorrow, while the kids kick off their Welsh champs challenge.... lets hope it runs a little more smoothly than ours did!