National success for Chay
Chay Bonnington, together with big sister Keira, was part of the Wales B side which took part in the British Alpine Racing Ski Club Indoor Ski Championships, which were held at the Chill Factore in Manchester.
The team performed better than the A team and managed to make it to the final of the dual slalom event.
There was some extremely difficult opposition to overcome in the form of Manchester Ski Racing Club – who were made up predominantly of sponsored skiers – in the final, but the team produced a stunning effort to come away with the overall title.
There was even more success for Chay at the North Wales Skiing Championships.
Continuing his astonishing haul of medals for the season, the skiing star took home the U12 title despite being only 10 years old and competing against skiers older and more experienced.
The talented young skiing sensation, who recently won the team slalom category at the British Alpine Racing Ski Club Indoor Ski Championships, where he was competing for Wales, ensured it was another weekend to remember by finishing second in the team event at Plas-y-Brenin.
There was further success for our skiers on the day with five year-old Xavier Poynton producing a sensational effort to take home the U6 crown.
A group of our pupils performed exceptionally at the Welsh Schools Skiing Championships this term.
Rydal Penrhos A – a team consisting of Henry Battersby, Chay Bonnington, Telor Jones and Noah Langford – finished second in the Junior Team category, narrowly missing out on top spot by just five seconds.
The B squad – which included Will Rutherford, Ethan Akroyd, James Copeland and Joshua Stewart – finished in fifth position to ensure that two Rydal Penrhos teams finished in the top five places.
The C team (Henry Hibbert, Biv Gilmartin, Cieran Milligan and William Hibbert) managed to finish in seventh place, while the D squad of Jasmin Beckett-Donald, Arianna Milligan, Ella Northcott and Lili Northcott finished just three tenths of a second behind to secure eighth place.
Chay produced the best performance of the weekend to earn himself a sixth placed finish, with Henry close behind him in seventh.
Telor finished ninth with a time of 12.78, and William rounded off the top ten places in 14.04.
The girls’ category also saw success, with Jasmin finishing in 11th place in a time of 13.69 seconds.
There were further performances of note from Ella (13th), Lili (17th) and Arianna (18th) to ensure four girls finished in the top 20.