Growing Pains Don’t Slow Down the Fun at Ski Club’s 1st Sprint Race

On February 15, the Wostawea ski club hosted its first annual sprint race on the Kingswood golf course.

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At 12:30, skiers lined up on the start line. It was one of the coldest days of the winter, and the wind on the golf course only made things worse. The timer began to count down from 15, beeping for the last three seconds, and the first skier was off.

The rest of the skiers left in 15-second intervals, doing all they could to get the best qualifying time on the 1,300m course. But skiers had to balance performance with saving energy for the next three rounds.

Everything seemed to be going as planned, but behind the scenes, volunteers were struggling.
“The system wasn’t generating the next wave of results, the next start lists, quite the way we wanted. So behind the scenes, things were a little more complicated,” says Peter Toner, assistant head of timing.

A few days earlier, the team of volunteers, who had been planning since October, feared there would not be enough skiers.

“We thought the magic number to be able to hold the event was 30, and even a few days before the event, we were worried that we weren’t going to have quite enough participants,” says Toner.

But on race day, 34 athletes were on the course, and nobody noticed the delayed results. The volunteers had succeeded where it was most important, creating an enjoyable race.

Laughter, cheering, cowbells, and music could be heard all afternoon.
“It was a super positive environment,” says Andrew Luiker, a competitor in the U-20 category. “Everyone just seems to be having a good time.”
A rough start didn’t stop Luiker from having a great afternoon.

“I kinda just did a face plant right at the beginning. I got my pole stuck and ended up getting up, but was in a little bit of pain and almost fell again. I kept on skiing though,” says Luiker while holding back laughter.

With hard work, he caught up finishing second in his category.

After the final race, a medal ceremony was held in the Radisson Hotel.

Snacks were available to all and beer for competitors over 19. Skiers stayed long after the ceremony, sharing strategies and laughing about accidents on the course.

Toner and the rest of the volunteers were happy with the results.
“The skiers had a great time, the weather turned out to be really quite good, and not as cold as we were anticipating. And everyone is very pleased with the event and told us so afterwards.”