TWO new South Australian titles marked a great way to end the season for Mildura skier Sophie Thomson.
The 23-year-old won both the Under 30 Women and 19-24 women’s classes behind Hell Yeah, piloted by dad Geoff Thomson with Jamie Moore in the observer’s seat, at last weekend’s titles in Murray Bridge.
Another local team in the Still No Dramas crew of Lochlan McGlynn, Declan Hartley and Oscar Baumgurtel also took out top honours in the MOC Outboard class, while the same boat with Lochy and Brandan McGlynn and Tyson Heathcote skiing they also picked up a bronze medal in the Social Men’s class.
The event however was unfortunately ended early by Ski Racing Australia due to an incident at the Queensland state titles, resulting in the death of a skier.
In the three-lap event, Thomson posted a time of 12:13:45 in the Under 30 women, just clocking in ahead of Emma Barnes and Sixteen 48 Racing with 12:13:47, and Jaymi Clancy behind the Hells Arsenal crew of Mark Boyer and Brandan McGlynn with 12:13:48.
She also took out the 19-24 women’s class with 12;13;01 ahead of Clancy with 12:13:07.
“That rounds up the season now, a good way to finish,” Thomson said.
“It’s a bit different to anything else we really do, rather than the long endurance races.
“There’s parts of the course that are a bit flatter so you can go faster, and there’s parts that are a bit rougher which I haven’t done much of recently.
“It takes a bit of adjusting, on the first lap we came around to the rough stuff and I was thinking I need to remember how to do this, but it was fun for something different.
“The distance is a big thing, it’s half the distance of what we do one way here, so about 25km to do the whole course.
“I have to thank Dad, my brother Ryan and Jamie for everything they did to help me.”
Thomson said there is a strong field of female ski racers at present, with 10 all competing against each other at the SA titles.”There’s a very strong field of women at the moment which makes it a bit harder and it’s something to push for,” she said.
“On the weekend the top five girls were all within about five or six seconds of each other which is great, I love it, really strong field at the moment.
“There’s lots of young girls looking up to her (Maddi Boyer) myself included, she’s a bit of a weapon.”
Thomson has eyes on next season and hopes to be at the pointy end of the major river races, including the Mildura 100 and Murray Darling 110.
The emerging skier did take out the One Up Men/Women’s Expert in last year’s 100.
“It’s always good to win the home races so we’ll aim for that.
“They’re my two favourite races. You know the course and you know where you are so you can push that bit harder when you know you’re closer to the end.
“The racing… I just love the adrenaline of it.”
