Team GB brought home 6 medals at the U14 and U17 European Championships in Italy. . .

This year’s annual Under 14 and Under 17 European Tournament was hosted in Recetto, Italy, on what must be one of the best sites in the World. The teams this year were: U14 Marcus Robinson, Matthew Rolands, Saba Yorke-Davies and Tom Parkin; U17 Joel Poland, Arron Davies, Katie Nutt and Robert Hazelwood. The trip started on Sunday 7th August flying the kids out to Milan from Luton escorted by Team Captain Flo Hazelwood. 

The U14’s gave it their all with Matthew making the Trick and Slalom final and Tom getting 2 pb’s in Jump and Tricks taking him through to the Trick final. Marcus booted out a personal best 28.1 metres but unfortunately was one spot off the final.  The U17 team made an excellent start with Arron, Robert and Joel making all 3 finals and Katie making Trick and Slalom finals.

Saturday saw the start of the finals and things started well with Tom Parkin, first up, again standing up both trick runs and building experience for future years, followed by Matthew who put in a career best of 4130 points earning him a very respectable 5th position, with another year to go in this age group! The U17s, maybe for the first time in years, had all 3 boys in all three finals. Robert tricked 7690 points to secure 5th and boost his overall score after a shakey first round. Joel showed his skill off with some brilliant tricking to earn a Silver medal with 9280 points. The boy’s outstanding trick results put the team in contention for a Team medal.

Sunday started with Katie Nutt skiing really well with 2@12metres and setting the standard for the rest to match. For a while a medal beckoned but in the end a 4th place result left her narrowly short of a medal - great skiing though. The boys Slalom final was next up with Arron out first and setting a very strong 3@11m which earned him his first ever European medal with a Bronze. Joel and Robert unfortunately not enoying their best day - Robert managing 4th with 2@11m and Joel 7th with half@11m. That left the Jump event with Arron out first and setting the ball rolling with a great 44.6m jump securing 10th place. Robert got close to his pb with a 50.2m jump, securing him an Overall Bronze medal. Joel produced some brilliant jumping with a massive 55.8m, which set a Championship record (all 3 medallists in this event broke the championship record which shows just how high the standard was!) The jump event provided a nail biting finale befitting any great Championship, with a jump-off for Gold and Silver positions for Overall between Joel and Louis Duplan-Fribourg who had tied in joint top spot. Joel put in an outstanding jump but was pipped by just a few centimetres giving him a well earned Silver medal and a score that contributed to his Overall Silver medal.

At the end of the event we realised that out of 18 teams, the GB U17’s had won the Team Silver, and the under U14s,  finished a very respectable 6th overall, which bodes well for the future.

Full article to follow in the next issue of the BWSW magazine