Day 5 Blog: Ready, Set, DUAL!

Written by AOA Executive Director Scott Barrett. 

Today I had the pleasure of running commentary for the Dual Slalom event which saw the best 14 and 15 year old athletes in the province racing head to head in a dazzling display of what this sport is all about. The knockout style event whittled down a field of 101 boys and 75 girls to a round of final eight.. then to a round of four and eventually to just two athletes battling to cross the finish line first.  In the end two National Capital Division racers from Camp Fortune Ski Club clinched the top spot, Kobe Villeneuve and Keirsten Harvey.

The nonstop action didn’t let up with the end of the race. With this being the final day of the event it was time to hand out some hardware!! It is my pleasure to present you with the inaugural winners of the Pizza Pizza Cup – your Aviva U16 OCUP Final Champions Daisy Taylor from the National Ski Academy and Ben Smegal from the Craigleith Ski Club. These two individuals racked up the highest combined point totals from this weeks Super G, Giant Slalom, and Slalom event.

The Awards Ceremony this afternoon also included the trophy presentations for the OCUP Overall Series Champions, tabulated over the entire OCUP U16 Series with Alpine Ski Club’s Elizabeth Sullivan winning for the women and Zachary Temertzoglou from Georgian Peaks for the men.

I cannot go on any further without extending a huge shout out to Northern Ontario Division Alpine, the Race Organizing Committee, the Searchmont Ski Runners, the volunteers, the parents, and of course the athletes for coming together to create such a successful finale to another exciting season of U16 ski racing in Ontario. You have once again made me proud and have cemented the idea that you don’t need the biggest slopes to produce top notch athletes.