While Sheffield Hallam University’s dominance in the Winter Varsity ice hockey continued last Saturday with a 3-1 victory, the eighth year in a row they have won the ice hockey, the University of Sheffield managed to prevail at the Sheffield Ski Village and retain the Winter Varsity trophy with a 4-0 whitewash after powerful performances in both the ski and snowboarding slaloms and the two freestyle finals, winning Winter Varsity 4-1 overall.
Uni made their dominance count early on in both the skiing and snowboarding slaloms, comfortably taking a 2-0 lead. Not only were Uni much faster on the off down the slalom, but even when Hallam had the advantage at times, the Uni skiers and snowboarders were quite to catch them up and even at times overtake them.
Then came the freestyle, the spectators who had paid good money and braced the bitterly cold weather to support their respective universities were treated to an hour or so of non-stop, no pressure freestyling from the two sides, before the judges decided on the best skiers and snowboarders from the two universities to compete in the two finals.
The finals saw a lot of great tricks; 180s and 270s, huge front flips, several catching big air, grabs and even ski or snowboarding trains from both sides which went down very well with the fans. A few injuries were suffered as to be expected, one competitor in particular broke his collarbone when in action.
The two finals lasted for half an hour before the eager anticipation of the announcement as the spectators made their way back to the bar once the freestyling had finished. They had to wait a while, but Ben Baldwin, Sports Officer for the University of Sheffield, announced the 4-0 victory, and the Ski Village bar erupted.
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