So whilst the Olympic competitors are battling it out in Sochi, we have our NEXT set of potential future Olympians competing right here on home ground.
Our future athletes from universities across the country are competing in BUSC’s annual event, the British University Indoor Snowsports Championships (or BUISC as it is referred to for obvious reasons).
The northern finals kicked off last week with a big event held at Xscape in Castleford and we saw a massive number of competitors from northern universities pushing it to make the finals, which will be held on 12th March in Castleford.
The competition consisted of two heats and a final in both slalom and slopestyle, with the top 8 men and top 3 women making the national finals in each event.
The racing kicked off in the early morning with Edward Castle-Henry from Cumbria taking to top spot for the men and Sophie Miles from Manchester taking the gold for the women in the board slalom events.
The slopestyle then dropped in the evening with some competitors getting big air off the kicker. However, at the beginning of the competition, judges warned they would prefer to see “a stylish 180 than a shit back flip” from the competitors.
Some riders took the advice, while others threw some interesting shapes off the kicker. And it was Edward Castle-Henry of Cumbria who qualified first yet again, whilst Daisy Maddinson from Leeds University grabbed first place for the ladies. Both will now be dropping in on the course again in March.
Below is the list of competitors from the north you can expect to see in the finals:
Men’s race
Edward Castle-Henry – Cumbria University
Tim Kay – Leeds Met University
Oliver Parker – Manchester Met University
Oliver Ross – Leeds University
James Thomas – Manchester University
Women’s race
Sophie Miles – Manchester University
Nicola Stehling – York University
Ania Krajinska – York University
Men’s slopestyle
Edward Castle-Henry – Cumbria University
Alessandro Rebecchi – Manchester University
Arian Sattarin – Manchester Met University
Billy Maddinson – Leeds University
Adam Roy – Sheffield Hallam University
Oliver Clark – Leeds
Marc Marine – Leeds Met University
Women’s slopestyle
Daisy Maddinson – Leeds University
Alex Price – Leeds Met University
Katy Witts – Leeds University
