Serious racing and cozy relationships

Every year members and non-members of the Dubai Ski Club compete at a mini World Cup. This year the race took place on Thursday November 13^th.

Af Rikke Raahauge - rikke@mermaidfreelance.com

COMPETITION: The Swedish team stands in front of the counter, smiles are wide.
“We have been practicing every weekend up to the race”, Team Captain Joakim Jorfors say.
The Swedes are worried of the competition from the Danish team, they have seen them on the slope:
“The Danes had several runners, but have been competing against each other up to the race, it means that the four runners who are left, are the absolute best ones“ Joakim Jorfors explains.

Bustle before take-off
It is Thursday in the afternoon, the 13^th of November. 15 teams from 15 countries are ready to compete against each other in the yearly - and one and only - Mini World Cup in Dubai Ski Club. Behind and in front of the counter the couple Jennie and Chairman Lars Ipland is busy getting everything ready on time.
All teams have four contestants, or that is, what they should have, Ian from Scotland has a problem tracking down his team mates, they didn’t show up, and now he kindly asks if everyone could lend him some assistance on the slope, everybody seems occupied on their own teams though.

Changing climate
The outside temperature today is 28 degrees Celsius, but entering the inside of Ski Dubai, temperature drops 31 degrees. The borrowed snowboots come in handy, as well as hat and gloves
Two persons in the classic Dubai Ski Club “uniforms” are located at the finish-line on the slope, it is Andreas Teufl from Austria and Dawn Shimmield from Great Britain, they are responsible for the timing, and it appears that Race Master Andreas is quite used to this kind of job, he is very serious.

The first run
The first one on the slope is Alexey Gavrilov Team Captain from the Russian team, before the race he thought the chances for a Russian victory were around 50 percent. Alexey does a good run, so maybe the prediction is going to come thru.
The other runners though are also quite fast, especially the Danish Team Captain Kasper Bang makes and impression, he does the fastest run at 20.12 seconds.
Later another Dane Katrine Stamov makes Andreas Teufl react.
“Fast girl“ he smiles, lifting his eyebrows, when Katrine reaches the finish line for the first time.
Each contestant has to run twice before a winner can be found, by the first
round it is very close. Bosnia & Herzegovina takes first place, Slovenia is second and Demark is number three
The gates are changed a bit by the second run, which means, that many contestants are faster, including the Danish Team Captain who once again has the fastest run in 18.41 seconds.

They finally made it
On the top of the slope, tension rises, everyone want’s to make it a little better this time.
Ian from Scotland is standing aside laughing, he finally found his team mates, they were stuck in traffic, but finally arrived, and are now defending the Scottish flag.
Another team, who is in deed defending their flag is Norway, the team brought a Large group of supporters, who are now placed halfway down the slope with huge flags, and a “heja” every time a Norwegian runner takes off.

Danish victory
As soon as the last contestant has crossed the finish line, Race Master Andreas takes care of the results. He adds the two runs, and Mini World Cup 2008, has found its winner.
Slovenia falls to third place, while Denmark and Bosnia & Herzegovina have the exact same time, and share the first place.
At a more carefully look at the times, it appears that Denmark has been the fastest though, they win with 17 hundredths of a second.
Weeks of preparation is over, it is now time for rejoicing, taking medals and another very important thing - a whole night of after ski.