Marie skis to glory

Victory usually means an automatic place in the World Student Championships, held in China next month, but Marie has been denied the chance because she is the wrong side of the qualifying age limit by three weeks.

She said: “To qualify for the championships you had to be under 28 on January 1 this year, but my birthday is on December 8, so I just missed out.

“They brought in the age limit to stop people continuously enrolling on courses so they could compete, usually in America where student sport is huge.

“It’s gutting because I was in with a real chance of a medal.�

And Marie, a student at South Bank University, had her disappointment doubled by the fact she missed out in 2006 because the World event was cancelled.

It’s been a frustrating season for the Cubitt Wharf resident, mainly because the terrible summer weather has scuppered her hopes of improving her world ranking.

Slalom skiers earn points for the number of buoys they negotiate on decreasingly shorter lengths of cable – the shorter the cable, the more difficult the manouevre and the higher the number of points scored. But strong winds and choppy water makes using shorter cables difficult and dangerous.

She said: “It’s been so windy it’s made training and competing really difficult. The weather has played a big role in what I can do. Normally by this stage in the season I’d be using an 11m cable but you can’t do it when the water is so rough. It is frustrating.�

But Marie has proved her class by overcoming the weather to win a couple of important competitions.

She won the women’s slalom competition at the Greater London and South East Championships, held at Thorpe Park in July, and topped that by defending her 25 to 35-year-old crown at the British National Championships last week.

She said: “It was horrendously windy at both. It was gale force at the British Championships, and it was raining too, so it wasn’t very pleasant for anyone.

“But it was fantastic to retain the title and it made up for missing out at the British Open when boot problems meant I finished fifth. All in all it’s been a good season, I just wish the weather was better.�

With autumn approaching the season is winding down. Marie returns to university for the last year of her course but she’s already got one eye on next year.

She said: “I’ll definitely be looking to do even better next year. I just hope we have a better summer to help me do it.�