Perse skier celebrates successful season
Danna Wang (Year 7) has displayed plenty of style on the slopes during a successful skiing season.
Aged 12, she has often come up against older and more experienced skiers in the U14 girls’ category of indoor and dry slope competitions.
Despite this, she won the British Independent Schools indoor title and came third in the NSSA (National Schools SnowSports Association) Indoor Championships, both held at The Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead.
Danna also came an impressive 10th in the NSSA UK Outdoor Open on the dry slope at Swadlincote.
She said: “I was really happy with my results and I felt especially proud of how I did at Swadlincote because there were so many really good skiers in my category.”
Although Danna first tried skiing when she was aged just two, for a long time she just enjoyed skiing for fun at Hemel before being encouraged to try race training at the venue by her parents 18 month ago.
“I really enjoyed it and decided to keep going, although at first I felt a lot slower than everyone else,” she said.
Danna went on to join Essex Ski Race Club and now trains for five hours every weekend at Brentwood dry ski slope, followed by two hours after school one day a week at Hemel.
She said: “We do different exercises. At Brentwood, it’s more about technique, and at Hemel, it’s more about having fun and going fast.”
Danna explained indoor and dry slope courses offer different challenges in terms of racing.
“Dry slope is slower than indoor, but the courses are set a lot tighter so the gates are closer together, which makes it harder,” she said.
Danna’s favourite skier is Dave Ryding, who became the British competitor to win a World Cup event with victory in the men’s slalom at Kitzbuhel, Austria, in January.
Like Ryding, she would relish the opportunity to test her racing skills on the mountains.
Danna said: “I’ve done Alpine training camps in France during school holidays and the conditions are different to indoors because you have the wind and sun. I haven’t been racing for long, but I’d like to go and do some Alpine racing in France or Austria.”
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