January 27 2006

OVERSEAS ATHLETE UPDATE #1

This Northern Hemisphere season sees around 60 New Zealand skiers training and competing overseas, some are based in North America or Canada whilst others are in Europe. The athletes are as young as 11 years old, right through to the newly announced New Zealand Winter Olympic Team athletes some of whom are in their mid twenties. From all accounts the snow conditions are excellent, something that hopefully bodes well for our upcoming New Zealand Winter.

Many of the athletes have been overseas since November or early December and are now well and truly in to the racing phase of their trips.Several of the younger athletes will be competing at International FIS sanctioned Childrens races over the next couple of months.

Childrens races coming up shortly are Borrufa, Formigal, Pokal Loka and Topolino all in Europe, followed by The Whistler Cup over in Canada in April.

The Boruffa team is: Charlotte Newbold, Sophia Jamieson, Ben Jamieson, Jamie Prebble, Oscar Rodwell, Angus Wilkins, Nick Prebble and Richard Stevens. At Formigal we will be represented by: Charlotte Newbold, Jamie Prebble, Oscar Rodwell, Angus Wilkins, Nick Prebble and Richard Stevens.

Harriet Miller-Brown kicks off her overseas racing with the Polkal Loka event and is also part of the The full team for Topolino is Harriet, Taylor Smith, Sophia Jamieson, Ben Ridley, Stephen Calder, Daniel Mahoni-Rae and Ben Jamieson. News of their results in the next update.

Many of our younger FIS registered athletes have also been competing; it was not so long ago that it was very rare for the young New Zealand athletes to make points overseas. Times are changing!

Alice Ralston, recently addition to the National Junior Team, and in her second year of FIS racing, has been scoring some impressive results in North America. Alice is based at Vail, and has already reduced her GS points by around 15, from high 90’s at the end o the NZ season to low 80’s; in slalom she has reduced her points from 97 to mid 80’s. However, her best results thus far have come from the recent races at Beaver Creek where she made two excellent Super-G results which should see her points drop to around 105 on the next list.

Congratulations Alice!

Leighton Winsloe, also second year FIS, and a new member of the National Junior Team, is based in Switzerland; Leighton is skiing very consistently and has also made his best slalom result to date, scoring 104 points in Anzere Switzerland.

Other results of note from the younger FIS athletes are:

• Edward Sai Louie reducing his points in both slalom and GS over in Europe.
• Anna Hall scoring a slalom result at Nakiska Canada.
• Emilie Tait-Jamieson scoring a GS result also at Nakiska.
• Libby Dallison and Katie Jackson both putting their first Super-G results on the board.

Angus Howden took a 3 year break from ski racing to complete his education, he returned in 2004 and is now putting in some of his best results.

Angus is based in Canada and has been competing on the circuit there; he has recently scored his best slalom result since his comeback, this along with other strong results will see his slalom points reduce to the low 50’s on the next list – a reduction of around 17 points.

Volkswagen National Mens and Womens Ski Teams

The Volkswagen National Mens and Womens Ski Teams headed overseas with their coaches Nils Coberger and Eric Rolland, plus support crew of Peter Warmington and Ginny Bush in early November, initially based at Copper Mountain, they got some great training, often alongside international skiing superstars. This must have been great motivation to them because they have put in some excellent results.

Youngest member of the Volkswagen National Womens team, 17 year old Michelle Greig, has skied consistently in the technical events overseas but pulled out all the stops in the Super-G series at Winter Park in December, scoring 2 personal best results and taking 4th and 5th placings, these results saw Mitch’s SG points plummet from 72 to 55. Mitch only just missed out on Olympic selection in Super-G.

Sarah Jarvis had a relatively slow start to her Northern Hemisphere campaign but has recently scored a promising 49 point result in France, she is obviously coming back in to form.

Returning from injury sustained in the NZ season, Erika McLeod’s Northern season started very well in December with a Super-G win at Winter Park, beating Nicola by a 10th of a second, followed by two very solid GS results at Steamboat, taking 2nd and 4th placings. In January she continued her great form and scored a 41 point result in slalom in France – already selected to the NZ Olympic team in GS, we are all waiting for the next FIS list which may well see her drop in to the criteria for possible Olympic selection in slalom also.

Nicola Campbell, National Champion in both slalom and GS, has also had an outstanding start to her campaign, she started with an excellent GS result at the NorAms at Winter Park in late November, the field was filled with World Cup skiers, and Nicola scored a 37 point result taking 23rd place.

Nicola followed this with a great speed series at Winter Park taking two second places and reducing her FIS points from 71 to 53 in Super-G.

In early January both teams moved from North America to Europe where Nicola scored a personal best 32 point result in slalom taking 4th place at Ancelle France, followed by a fantastic 17 point result in GS at the same series, also taking 3rd place.

This result puts Nicola right up there, and is the best GS result scored by a New Zealand woman in the modern era – well done Nicola! Nicola is the second member of the New Zealand Winter Olympic team for Torino, and will compete in GS and Super-G.

The Volkswagen National Mens team started their competitive programme at the highly competitive NorAm technical events at Keystone. The fields were full of World Cup skiers preparing for the upcoming World Cup events in North America. Sadly none of the men got a second run (only top 60 from the first run get through at NorAm level), a couple of them missing out by a whisker.

Undeterred Mark Bridgwater headed up to Canada to join the Alberta Team in early December to compete in the NorAm Speed Series at Lake Louise and Panorama. Mark had an excellent series taking top 15 positions in all four starts, two Super-G and two Downhill. On his return to the NZ team he then took out 1st place at the Winter Park speed series Super-G that the girls did so well at. Not bad, two Kiwis in top position at the same series! The following series at Steamboat saw Mark score a 37 point personal best slalom result.

However disaster struck at the NorAm series at Hunter Mountain New York where he crashed in the finish of the first GS and ruptured his ACL.

Season over…….

James Arnott suffered a similar fate to Mark breaking a bone in his ankle during the first GS at Steamboat Springs in mid December.

James has also returned home, and as you will have read on the website has decided it is time to call it a day, James we all wish you well with your business endeavours.

Mickey Ross is skiing well in slalom, scoring a 30 point result at Hunter Mountain NorAm and taking 14th place, and also a solid 35 point result in Chamonix France. Mickey is the third and final member of the NZ Winter Olympic team.

January has also seen Mickey competing in Europe at the highly competitive World Cup level, were only the top 30 get a second run. He is also working hard on GS with as view to getting his rank low enough for possible Olympic selection in this discipline also.

Tim Cafe, youngest Mens Team member, has scored some exciting results. At Steamboat Springs he made an outstanding 42 point result in GS in a very strong field, this result saw his points reduced from 52 to 46 on the following FIS list. He has also had three really solid slalom results in Europe also helping with his points profile, Tim’s latest results from two Super-Gs at Caspoggio, Italy will also see a further improvement in his Super-G points profile. Tim’s major focus for this season is World Junior Championships in Canada early March, watch out for his results in the next update.

Last but certainly not least is Andy Greig, Andy scored a very solid 62 point slalom result at Steamboat Springs in December and has followed it up with great 52 and 55 personal best results at Chamonix France. The next list will also see his Super-G points drop following another good result at Caspoggio Italy.

To summarise our Winter Olympic team is: Nicola Campbell, Erika McLeod and Mickey Ross. A new page will shortly be set up on the website, and you will be able to email the Olympic team athletes with your best wishes.