19 August 2003

UK's National Indoor Freestyle Ski Championships
In blazing summer heat, 30 of Britain's best Freestyle Skiers kept cool in the Xscape snow complex in Milton Keynes, for the first leg of the AIM Series Indoor Championships, battling it out in the Skiercross and Slopestyle.

The day started on the purposed built skiercross course where the skiers, head to head in heats of three, negotiated their way down a course of jumps and tight turns, inspired by a motorcross track. Fastest down the slope in the Super Final was Tom Bucknell. In the women's, Victoria Sarsfield from Durham had a clear win coming in almost a ski length before Lorna Carmichael, Edinburgh and Jocelyn Cockle, Milton Keynes.

At the Slopestyle Championships the atmosphere hit the roof when the skiers were able to show some real extreme talent pulling massive airs and slick tricks over a course of obstacles including rail, kickers and a big air jump. The men's super final was between UK's top three skiers, and D-spin-7 seemed to be the favourite aerial trick of the day.

Results

National Indoor Snowboard championships
The AIM series National Indoor Snowboard Championships kicked off in the afternoon as over 100 riders from all over the country were startlisted.

Boardercross
The competition was fierce when the riders, head to head in heats of three, aggressively negotiated their way down the course of jumps and tight turns. Fastest rider down the course was MKs amateur Simon Nicholson, who not only grabbed the Champions title but also Salomon's Best Unsponsored Rider award. Nicholson was closely followed by Edinburgh pro rider and GB team member Keiran Burchell and Matthew Collins from Wakefield. The ladies competition was won by another GB team member, Zoe Gillings from Isle of Man.

Slopestyle
The specially designed course with a variation of rails, a kicker and a big air jump impressed the high standard of riders, who were judged on their best run out of two. The women kicked off the competition with a nice range of solid rail slides and airs. Jo Brown again proved her talent with a 50:50 railslide followed by an Ollie over the kicker onto an Indy over the big air jump to finish with a boardslide-revert on the gas pipe. Brown also walked home as Salomon Best Unsponsored Female rider of the day.

The winners of the men's youth, junior and senior age categories were invited to battle it out in a Super Final to crown the overall champion, and James Carr, 14 yr old local pro and GB junior team member, showed that performance is independent of age and size when taking third Second place went to UK top 5 rider Simon Brass but the winner was James Thorne from Norfolk, after a slick performance of a cab-270-boardslide over the first rail, to continue with air-to-nose over the kinked rail, then straight into Boardslide-to-fakie on the s-rail to finish with 50:50 on the C-rail.

Where to next
The Indoor Skiercross and Slopestyle Championships at Xscape is the third event of the AIM Series, UK's official competition circuit for the British Snowboard and Freestyle Ski Championships in Les Deux Alpes, France March 2004. Next event will be the Artificial Halfpipe Championships at Sheffield Ski Village, August 30/31. For full AIM Series results and event schedule check out the official website.

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