Hyde Park Battle 2012
The first event of the UK Slalom series was held on Sunday 6th May, 2012 in Hyde Park. While the sun didn’t make an appearance, the clouds surprisingly held back the rain for the main events of the day with only the keenest of keen competitors facing up to competition under the brooding clouds.
First event of the day was mixed speed slalom. After a small delay with a few technical difficulties with the setup of the timing equipment, each competitor had 2 timed runs each with 4 skaters making it through to the finals. As it were, the top 2 men and top 2 (and only) females made it through to the finals. It was Men Vs Women for the semi-finals with both Jacob Carias and JB Milleret making it through to the final. Could the number 1 in the UK of Speed Slalom be beaten by a 15 year old? We all thought it wouldn’t be possible but the judges made their decision after their final run and declared Jacob the winner.
Next up was Women’s Freestyle Battle. With only 4 competitors, the ladies wasted no time and went straight to finals. Kris Millwood, from Brighton, was first up. Kris had only agreed to compete the day before and did well to complete her runs with a very limited amount of tricks up her sleeve. Next up was Stavria Achilleos, who’s main concern was making it up and back down the cone line within 30 seconds but even with showing some nerves she managed to successfully complete her runs. Next up, the level is raised with Zoe Brealey, despite a very shaky first run, she managed to pull off the most steadiest and smooth flowing screws for last trick. Finally, Natalie Ujuk, attempting every high level trick she knows plus some style for good measure in her runs had the pressure put on her by Zoe’s clean run of screws when it came to last trick. On Natalie’s second attempt of Leaf, she held onto two wheels no matter what and twisted her way to the end of the cone line.
And finally, Men’s Freestyle Battle. Two battle groups were formed with all UK ranked competitors making it to the final and the consolation final consisting of the all rookies. The consolation final was Gary McLaughlin, Dara Cazamea and Tyler Ashour-White. Tyler, the youngest skater to compete (8 years old) and the only skater to compete on quads entertained the crowd with his rendition of crazy legs and mixing in some bboy hand movements to his last trick. The Men’s final saw the current ranked top 4 in the UK fight it out: JB Milleret, Jacob Carias, Marc Bullock and Issy Rahim. And were there any surprises? See the results below!
Men’s Freestyle Battle
1. JB Milleret
2. Jacob Carias
3. Issy Rahim
4. Marc Bullock
5. Gary Mclaughlin
6. Dara Cazamea
7 .Tyler Ashour-White
Women’s Freestyle Battle
1. Natalie Ujuk
2. Zoë Brealey
3. Stavria Achilleos
4. Kris Millwood
Mixed Speed Slalom
1. Jacob Carias
2. JB Milleret
3. Natalie Ujuk
4. Kris Millwood
5. Douglas Kennth Rigsbie
5. Gary Mclaughlin
Rookie Winner: Gary Mclaughlin.