Army women survive scare in Telemark Parallel Sprint to shine bright in Meribel
The Royal Navy and British Army both had plenty to cheer about under the floodlights at Meribel's Stade on the second evening of competition.
The Telemark Parallel Sprint is one of the two floodlit events being held in Meribel this week, so it lends itself to something of a party atmosphere.
However, for the athletes there are still medals to be won and competition is fierce.
Both the men's and women's events had some incredibly close moments but the most dramatic came in the ladies final.
The Telemark Sprint winner, the Navy's Able Rate Georgiana Altham, lost her skis in the race against Sapper Georgia Binnington – and those skis nearly took out her Army opponent.
Georgia – or Binnie as she is known – survived to top the podium alongside Altham and Major Lori Seed of the Army.
Binnington told BFBS Sport: "It was a pretty intense final, but the first few races were quite nice, getting into it and then I finally came out of nowhere and just lucky that I didn't ski into Georgie, yeah it was a pretty mad last run.
"I had absolutely no idea [about her opponent's loose skis], I could hear people shouting and I was kind of looking around thinking, 'what’s everyone shouting at' but, yeah, thankfully missed me and I carried on and then nearly missed the gate because it was all a bit much.
"I actually really enjoy this [Telemark Parallel Sprint] because you can see where people are and you can adjust where you are, depending on how they're doing and you can kind of speed up or pull it back a little bit. Yeah, I really enjoy this one – it's my favourite."
As for the men, the battle among the top three of Marine Ollie Wotton, Major Stefan Hurst and Air Engineering Technician Matty Deane continues.
Army man Hurst raced a brilliant semi-final against the Navy's Deane – neck and neck coming up to the loom, Deane had picked up more penalties so had to ski the wider line and Hurst capitalised.
It meant he went on to meet Ollie Wotton in the final, where the Royal Marine led from the gate and went on to win by a comfortable margin.
Results:
Men's event:
- Marine Ollie Wotton (Royal Navy)
- Major Stefan Hurst (British Army)
- Air Engineering Technician Matthew Deane (Royal Navy)
Team winner: Royal Navy
Women's event:
- Sapper Georgia Binnington (British Army)
- Able Rate Georgiana Altham (Royal Navy)
- Major Lori Seed (British Army)
Team winner: British Army
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