His 3rd Kokanee race of the season took place on January 13, with strong winds and snow falling rather heavily. As a result, the race was reduced from 2 runs to a single run, since heavy snow poses a danger to the racers.
Here's Cory taking a long look at a very long race course...it's hard to see but it disappears around a corner in the far distance where the trees narrow. 45 gates in total, and it would take Cory one minute, 45 seconds to complete it. What do they think this is...the Olympics??
Waiting with the other racers for the race to get started...check out those flags flapping in the wind!
And some pre-races warm-ups with Coach Sammy Kent:
And then it's race time. As this video begins, Cory gets a bit off course and has to ski through thick soft snow and that slows him down quite a bit:
After each Kokanee race, there is a video review of all racers....here's Cory taken from the projection screen so the quality is poor:
Cory usually finishes last in his age category at Kokanee, so we always laugh about his goal being not to finish last. And on this day he doesn't finish last, 3rd out of 4 racers. And finishing third gets him a bronze, a bronze Whistler Blackcomb promotional pin that is.
The announcement! which I found quite funny...
The award!
But having participated in all 3 Kokanee races so far, and with only one other racer in his age group having done the same, that gives Cory enough points from the 3 races to put him in 3rd place overall, out of 14 racers!
And then there's a few days of training with the Blue Streaks on Grouse Mountain:
First run on fresh tracks, always a delight:
A little practice through a short stubby course:
A quick run down The Peak:
Nothing like a bit of slalom through the fog to quicken one's feet:
And then a few runs down a dual slalom against Cory's main rival from Special Olympics, and he's pretty pleased with the results...
Until....
Then Cory wins again as his rival crashes:
And then even though it becomes obvious that the blue course has a real advantage over the red course, Cory prefers to stay in the red one...a strategic little move perhaps since the race that counts is still 5 weeks away...
The rivals in action:
Cory showing some great technical skills here...upper body pointing towards the finish line, eyes looking ahead to the next couple of gates, hands up and in front of his body, hips forward over his feet, knees bent for stability and angled to the side for good pressure on this ski edges
And looking forward to a couple of races this week...and in one of them he'll be racing against his rival, so we're both looking forward to see how he does.
We'll update again soon. Leave us a comment, we'd love to know you visited our blog.
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