The slalom discipline was cancelled due to snow conditions in this year’s Balmain Cup, which had a couple of flow on effects – the Snowboard was brought forward, and not all of our original competitors could make it in time; and a decision was made that the GS discipline results would be counted twice, to allow clubs to still drop their worst discipline from the results.  This resulted in a very close competition, with the top four teams being separated by less than five points (out of a possible 300).

CAC came fourth overall, with some good individual results – Jordan Thompson third and Alia Moore 5th in the GS, and Val and Ric Guseli picking up 4th and 7th respectively in the Snowboard.

Full results are available on the Snowsports ACT website at http://www.snowsportsact.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Balmain-Cup-Results-2016.pdf

And the photo?  No, that’s not from the 2016 Balmain Cup – it’s from the 1957 Balmain Cup, held at Mt Franklin, and won by Cabramurra!

I’ll start with the good news – Matt Thomas came 2nd and Valentino Guseli 4th in the snowboard (CAC was 2nd in the snowboard overall), Jordan Thompson came 2nd in the GS, Shaun Kenny 3rd in the slalom. However 4 dq’s in the first run of the slalom knocked that discipline out of contention, and while we came 3rd (a whisker away from 2nd) in the XC, Cooma completely dominated with six of the first seven finishers (Tim Greville being the one to spoil their party by finishing fifth, after spending the day running the Paddy Pallin Juniors); Cooma was so far ahead in the XC that 2nd placegetters (Brindabella) only got 68.5 points (we got 68.02).
So – rooster to feather duster – overall we came fifth (less than a point behind Tate). A bit more practice and luck in the slalom (and nobbling Cooma in the XC?) and we’ll be back up there…
Congratulations to Cooma, who won the snowboard as well as XC, and took home the Balmain Cup this year.
And of course congratulations to all our competitors, who actually performed significantly better than the overall result would suggest.

For the full results, see the race results page, or get them directly from the Snowsports ACT site.

The Brumby Races were held on Upper Rollercoaster, on a dual GS course as usual.
The races consist of two timed runs for each competitor, one on the red course and one on the blue course, with plenty of competitive spirit between racers on the two courses. There is also a knockout series, where pairs race each other, and winners of each pair get to race again until the final men’s and ladies winners are established.
The timed runs determine the Brumby Cup winners – but it’s not as simple as being the fastest. Names are drawn randomly to get pairs of men/women, and the pair with the lowest total time wins the trophy. In 2015, because the race was rescheduled, the draw for the Brumby Cup will be held at the Club Dinner on August 15.
The knockout determines the winners of the President’s Cup (men’s and ladies).

Results for the timed runs have been posted on the Race Results page.
Update 17/8 – The results of the President’s Cup (men and women) have now been added to the page, as have the results of the random draw for the Brumby Cup.

Due to snow conditions, the Club Championships were run on Front Valley instead of Mother-In-Law – while the course was generally considered fairly straight-forward, this seemed to encourage racers to go for broke and there was the occasional stack.

Congratulations to our Champions!

Open Men’s Alpine – Tom Kenyon

Open Women’s Alpine – Lauren Wilson-Bygrave

Open Men’s Snowboard – Valentino Guseli

Open Women’s Snowboard – Nina Lange

Junior Boys’ Alpine – Andrew Kerr

Junior Girls’ Alpine – Caitlin Wilson-Bygrave

Junior Boys’ Snowboard – Valentino Guseli

Junior Girls’ Snowboard – Ali Guseli

Full results are on the race results page