Sesena International Slalom - 9th October 2004 The great site at Sesena, owned by the Botas family near Madrid, had more than it's fair share of problems this week. To start with water was mistakenly pumped into the lake and the water level rose covering the spit leading to the judging tower! Frantic efforts were made to rebuild the spit with huge trucks bringing in 40 ton loads of pebbles which were then spread with a bulldozer. Unfortunately, one of the huge trucks got stuck twice and delayed the repair, so that by today the new spit did not quite reach the judging tower. (It was entertaining for the spectators though, to watch the recovery of the trucks). This was not a problem for Ricardo (Botas) or the officials though, as everything was put in place ready by boat instead. The skiers all arrived on time and the event got underway only a little late. The trouble then was the weather. To start with things weren't too bad with just a little breeze but as things progressed, the wind got stronger. In the first round, the top skiers still performed well considering, but not up to the level that they would like. In the Ladies Open, Michelle Simpson put in a very good score for the conditions with 2 @ 12m. Her skiing looked very strong, probably encouraged by the fact that Glenn bet her that she wouldn't run her first pass! Christina Medem put in the second best score on her own lake with 5 @ 14.25m. In the Mens Open, only 4 skiers reached the 11.25m rope length. Clint Stalbaur scoring 1 @11.25 and Evangelos Papakirykos scoring 2 @ 11.25m. Ivan Morros showed good tactics and elected to miss the 12m pass and so ski 11.25m into the wind. He succeeded in running this pass and went on to score 3 @ 10.75m. Glenn Campbell also tried tactics to avoid the problems with the wind and elected to miss the 11.25m pass and take the 10.75m pass into the wind. Unfortunately, he didn't run the pass and scored 3, which counted as 3 @ 11.25m. We decided to delay the second round slightly to see if the conditions improved, starting at 2pm. The wind seemed to get worse by the second. After 2 or 3 skiers it was raining and the covers of the jury tower were blowing so much that it was dangerous for the jury and the electrical equipment, so unfortunately skiing had to be cancelled for the day. Hopefully, the weather will be a little better tomorrow!