Unfortunately the weather on this summer was not really suitable for any teams preparing in the European glaciers. First the continuous snowfalls and storms made the training impossible and then the weather suddenly became too warm which brought more difficult situations for both the competitors and the coaches.
The racers of the NIVELCO Ski Team expected to skiing in the previously tested South American training camp, but there was not enough snow in the Southern Hemisphere because of the unusually warm weather. A short discussion with our good old South African friends and an even shorter discussion with the team resulted in a totally new target place. We headed to another exotic country and finally spent three weeks in Africa.
Hungarian skier has never trained and especially not participated on any races in this continent before us. We tried to collect useful information from the Internet, we watched pictures and videos and we crossed our fingers. There were 10 Slalom competitions in the FIS calendar which meant two races in every day within only one week.
Since we decided only in the last moment to begin our journey we had no other choice than arrive two days before the competitions and start the long series of race with only one day of training.
Racing wasn’t the primary purpose of this trip but to find ideal training conditions so we tried to take advantage of the races as the best possible way of preparation.
In the first days we have experienced the expected typical African circumstances. At night there was freezing cold at 3000 m (9800 ft) above sea level and in the daytime bright sunshine and perfectly frozen artificial snow was waiting for us on the slopes.
The unexpected surprise came on the night of the second day when it began to snow really hard. During three days nearly a meter (3.3 ft) fell which entirely overwrote our plans. The mountain and the surrounding villages were declared a disaster area because the roads have become impassable within a fifty-kilometer (31 mile) circle. First the Internet then the phone lines and finally the electric current was completely eliminated.The power supplies of the whole mountain were provided by some generators with finite amount of gasoil.
The total freezing of the ski lift caused more concerns both for the competitors and the coaches. Despite further snowstorms and additional unexpected problems all the scheduled competitions were successfully held thanks to the joint superhuman work with the organizers. By introducing an extra day, in the last day six (three female and three male) competitions were held which meant a new record in the history of FIS.
The lot of waiting and deferrals were really exhausting both physically and mentally for the competitors and the coaches. Not to mention the breaks due to the permanent snow removal and sometimes the racers had to climb up the slopes by foot because of the frozen ski lifts.
Finally the long tournament ended with NIVELCO successes.
Noa Szőllős confidently won the South African championship in her age-group. Day by day she become more accustomed to the rules of the FIS competition and she raced as a forerunner in all the ten FIS races.
The boys, Barnabás Szőllős and Benjamin achieved podium results alternately in all the 10 races and collected valuable slalom points in the beginning of the extended Olympic season.
Barnabás Szőllős earned five bronze medals and two silver medals. He also successfully reduced his FIS points so now he is the second best Hungarian racer on the FIS list with 33.83 points (29.70; 37.96).
Benjamin Szőllős has not been in his top form on the early races. Mostly he only managed to get one good run out of two. Finally in the last race he could proudly stand on the top of the podium.
Benjamin also came really close to the Olympic qualification with two excellent results (31.10; 38.91).
At the moment Benjamin and Barnabás are leading the FIS ranking of Hungarian U-21 in both main events (SL and GS), and they are getting closer to the Olympic level in more events.
Only after one resting day the valuable training finally began when the tournaments finished. The program included slalom training in six days divided into two workouts a day. All the conditions were optimal for the training thanks to our South African friends and in return they could train together with the NIVELCO Racing Team trained by Markus Erhardt professional coach.
I would like to say thanks again for the invitation of our friends, Alex Heath race director and to Peter Pilz, the President of the South African Ski Federation.
