MOUNT House School's star skier Ella Hartley has returned from the British School girls' skiing races in France with three trophies and three gold medals, having won both the slalom races in her category, and the combined award. The slalom title was decided over two races, each consisting of two runs, and all four were over different courses. In the first race Ella won the first run by seven seconds, and although was beaten in the second run, her aggregate time for the two was good enough to give her the victory. Buoyed by this success she went on to win both runs in the second race and take her second gold, and with it the trophy for overall slalom winner in the British-based non-registered child category. In last year's races, Ella was the sole representative from Mount House, and came away with glowing reports from the organisers, a silver medal in the slalom, a bronze in the grand slalom, and a cup for the best non-registered skier in the competition. This year Ella was accompanied by two other young skiers from the school, India Leigh and Rosie Yeoward, though India was unfortunate enough to sustain a knee ligament injury in the first run and was not able to take any further part in the races. Sadly Ella's hopes of taking the giant slalom as well as the slalom title were dashed when the event was cancelled because there was insufficient snow on the piste to plant the course-marking poles. In addition to the medals and trophies, by coming first in the first race, Ella won a free week's training with the Downhill Only club (DHO) at one of their half-term training camps.
