March 02 2006

OVERSEAS ATHLETE UPDATE #2

It has been just over a month since the last update and our athletes overseas have been extremely busy, and also successful.

The Olympic Winter Games has been the focus of the month, but there is also plenty of other news to read….

The pre-FIS athletes have now competed at the European International Childrens events.

At the Boruffa Cup Nick Prebble showed all the Northern Hemisphere kids just how to do it by taking 1st place in the Children 1 GS, he also placed 7th in the Super-G.

Other results of note:

              Sophia Jamieson Ch1 SL – 18th

              Charlotte Newbold Ch11 GS – 18th, Ch11 SL – 10th

              Richard Stevens Ch1 SG – 19th  

              Ben Jamieson Ch1 GS – 20th, Ch1 SL – 16th

              Jamie Prebble Ch11 SG – 17th, Ch11 GS – 7th, Ch11 SL – 14th

In the Combined Event Nick Prebble was 3rd, Ben Jamieson 6th and Jamie Prebble 10th.

In the Teams Event New Zealand came a creditable 9th from 25 teams.

Formigal was held a few days after Boruffa and Nick Prebble was still on form taking 3rd in the SG, and second in both the GS and Slalom.

Richard Stevens also performed well taking 11th in both the SG and GS.

Another group of young athletes trained at Silver Star, Canada over the Christmas holidays.

These athletes travelled to Sun Peaks Resort for GS racing on the 7/8 January.

K1 boys, Finlay Neeson and James Sturgess achieved excellent results. Finlay placing 1st and James placing 3rd.

Charlotte Kirk achieved the best result for the Kiwi girls moving from 42nd start position to 15th place.

In the J1/J2 races, Felix Burton and Todd Sandford came 8th and 9th respectively. Only 2 seconds behind them were Simon Kirk placing 13th and Henry Cole 15th.

In the K1 boys overall, Finlay Neeson achieved 1st place and James Sturgess 5th.

The older athletes have also been flying the New Zealand flag. National Junior Team member Alice Ralston won a National Junior FIS race at Oberwiesenthal Germany scoring a personal best 68 point result. Alice’s impressive form continued on her return to the USA with a 75 point GS result at Telluride.

Andrew Wylie has been training in Europe and has scored a 114 point slalom result which saw his points drop from 119 to around 93 on the next FIS list.

At the Snow King races in early February Katie Jackson scored two personal best GS results and Tom Johanson also scored personal bests in both Slalom and GS.

Katie and Lucie Tait-Jamieson also put their first Downhill points on the board, Lucie also scored a very respectable Super-G result at the Apex NorAm Speed Series.

National Squad member Ben Griffin and senior athlete Angus Howden have been training in Canada for the past 4 months.

Ben scored 2 personal best Super-G results at the Apex speed series seeing his points reduce from 163 points to 100 and also excellent Downhill results, including the two podium finishes; his DH points are now 104 from 191.

Angus competed in the Super-G events scoring 93 and 97 point results and now has a SG points profile of 94 from 161 previously.

Following a number of speed starts Ben and Angus moved on to a technical series at Silver Star.

Their good form has continued with two top 10 finishes for both athletes. Ben scored personal best results in both Slalom and Giant Slalom, two sub 50 point GS results will see Ben’s points reduce to the mid 40’s on the next list. Angus has also improved his slalom points.

Nicola Eves has again been based at Jackson Hole, she has competed at the Big Mountain NorAm speed series and scored 2 personal best Downhill results, Nicola’s DH points are now 146 from 165.

National Junior Team member Michael Eyles also competed at Big Mountain, scoring a very solid 96 point Super-G result and lowering his SG points to 102 from 117.

National Junior Team member Leighton Winsloe, based in Europe, has been competing consistently and has made a creditable 93 point Slalom result in a big high class field at Abetone, Italy.

Volkswagen National Mens and Womens Ski Teams

National Team athletes selected to the Winter Olympic Team moved in to the Olympic village in early February.

All the Olympic news can be followed on the NZOC link page on the website.

The balance of the athletes have been training and competing in Europe.

Andrew Greig competed in a couple of Downhills at Cortina d’Ampezzo Italy in early February skiing to 2 personal best results and lowering his points to 114 from 151; he also had a breakthrough Slalom result at Melchsee Frutt, Switzerland in mid February scoring an excellent 37 point result in a strong field.

Tim Cafe is now over in Canada at the World Juniors, Tim also competed at Cortina scoring a personal best Downhill result. Tim will return to New Zealand to get in to some university work following the World Juniors.

Sarah Jarvis and Michelle Greig have concentrated on training and recharging their batteries during February.

Nicola Campbell is taking a few days off following the Olympics, and will be back with the Womens team shortly.

All National Mens and Womens Team athletes, with the exception of Erika McLeod and Tim Cafe, will be competing at various national championships throughout March.

News of the last month of the Northern Hemisphere season, to include World Junior and Whistler Cup results will be brought to you in the final update at the beginning of April.

All the New Zealand FIS registered athletes can be followed using the www.fisski.com website, clicking Alpine on the LHS toolbar and then Competitor Biographies.

If you would like any further guidance on navigating around the FIS site please do not hesitate to contact me - sue@skiracing.org.nz