Spanish Nationals 2004 The Spanish Nationals were held last weekend at Sesena, about 30 mins from Madrid. The site is owned and run by the Botas family. Ricardo Botas is an international boat driver and his wife Cristina and daughters Nadine and Sandra are all very good skiers. The lake itself is a disused gravel pit and has the advantage of guaranteed water levels. Most of the time the water is flat, with an occasional breeze. (Although, as we were leaving after the finals, some freak hail stones were cooling off the water!). The weather was what you would expect in Spain with temperatures very pleasantly in the 30's each day. Apart from all that, there was some very good skiing from all the age categories. On Saturday, all the skiers skied in age category. Cristina Medem (Botas) easily won the ladies senior slalom with a very impressive 1.5 at 12m. Cristina De Medrano won the Under 17 ladies slalom with 1 at 12m and Nadine Botas won the Under 21 ladies slalom with 2 at 12m. (Sandra Botas was 2nd in the Under 17 category, which was very good as she is still only a Dauphin). The Ladies Open slalom was won by Elisabeth Chaves with 3 at 13m. In the mens slalom, the seniors was won by Cesar Arbaizar with 4.25 at 12m, the Under 17's by Borja Moreno de Los Rios with 3.5 at 12m, the Under 21's by Roger Ballus with 4 at 11.25m and the Open by Ivan Morros with 4 at 10.75m. (we were all a bit confused for a while by Ivan's score as we all believed it to be 4 at 11.25m, until we realised that he had skipped a pass!). In the jump event, no open men took part, and the best jump was 52.6m by Guillermo Moreno de Carlos in the Under 21 category. The best ladies jump was 39.4m by Cristina De Medrano in the Under 17 category. In the tricks both of the best results came from the Under 17 categories with Cristina de Medrano scoring 3650 and Louis Noguera scoring 4030. All these results showing that there are some very good up and coming skiers in Spain. On Sunday, all the results from Saturday were put together to produce an "Open" final. The ladies slalom started the day with a very exciting tie-break between Cristina de Medrano and Cristina Medem who both scored 2 at 12m. Cristina de Medrano skied first, running 13m and then 2.25 at 12m. Cristina Medem then also ran 13m, but unfortunately skied just inside buoy 2 leaving Cristina de Medrano the Spanish Ladies champion. The mens slalom final was a little bit more predictable with Ivan Morros becoming champion with 2 at 10.75m, although Roger Ballus was not too far away with 4.5 at 11.25m. In the tricks finals Cristina De Medrano took the ladies title with an improved score of 4430 and Roger Ballus the mens title, also with an improved score of 5180. In the jump finals Elisabeth Chaves took the ladies title with 38.9m, just ahead of first round leader Cristina de Medrano with 38.8m. Guillermo Moreno de Carlos took the mens title equalling his first round jump of 52.6m. All round, the competition was very good. The Botas family were excellent hosts and worked very hard all week. Maybe Nadine worked a little too hard as she unfortunately fell on her 13m pass in the final, but I'm sure both her and Sandra will win a lot more in the future. The only thing lacking from the competition was the presence of the Spanish Federation. Apologies to any of the skiers whose names I have misspelled.