Junior Alpine Ski Racers start with Super G - National Youth Series

Saturday’s National Youth series Super G races franked recent form from both Islands, as North met the South at Mt Hutt.

Two separate races were held down the 1,327m course that dropped 350m from the 1955m elevation of Tower 14 on the six pack chair, to finish 100m above the public viewing deck.

On snow packed powder in good light QAST’s Laura McLauchlan posted a 1 – 2 podium finish in the K2 ladies race, and Cadrona HPC’s Piera Hudson virtually matched that with a 3 -1 performance. Both skiers put in highly ranked “zero points” winning runs, in 67.57 secs and 69.85secs respectively. 

Rosie Smith had a second, and then a spectacular but injury free crash, and Anastasia Morrison improved her first run by 15 points to make the podium on her second.

Rosie Smith. Credit Jane Dove Juneau.

The men’s K2 was dominated by Ruapehu Sports’ Jamie Green with a zero points 63.58secs and a slower twenty points 69.45s second win as the course was opened up, but warmed up 2 degrees and started to show some wear and tear. The faster run represented an average speed of around 75kph.

Jamie Green. credit Jane Dove Juneau

Laurie Taylor bagged a brace of silvers in 64.55 and 70.26 and in the process upset a Ruapehu trifecta on the second run with Harry Izard Price having to settle for 3rd only 0.37sec back and John Knowles a further 0.33secs away in 4th. Tai Juneau was fifth ensuring that Ruapehu Coach Mike Stratton from Ontario could be well pleased with his team and the way they skied his reset.
 

Tai Juneau. Credit Jane Dove Juneau.

Mt Hutt’s Grant Jamieson  had made the first run quite technical and that suited QAST’s Elizabeth Reid and Jodie Llewellyn just fine as they took the K1 quinella, and for good measure, repeated it later. Wendy Kumono brought an international dimension with a pair of bronzes.

Mt Hutt’s home town racer Sam Bushell snuck in by five hundredths of a second over Ruapehu’s River Jones Gardner in 68.65 secs in the K1 boys race. It featured the biggest field of the day with 24 starters. Harry Eisenhut took the Bronze from fellow Aucklander Conrad Barry and his Cadrona team mate Jackson Wells.

Harry Izard Price. Credit Jane Dove Juneau Photos

Jossi Wells’ little brother, Jackson then turned the tables in the afternoon run in a flying 68.14secs - which was ranked zero points and remarkably outpaced both the K2 boys and girls entire fields.

Mt Hutt’s Charlie Carey put in a 62 pointer silver medal run, exactly 4 seconds back, third was Conrad Barry who pipped local James o’Donoghue by a snowflake 2 hundredths of a second.

The K1 boy’s competition augurs well for the future of Alpine Ski racing in New Zealand with strong performances and depth from each of the main race centres.

Special note must go to, my son, Faolan Gavigan who bravely skied the first run with a broken nose and black eye copped in a playground mishap the previous day. He’ll be back, just like his team mate Amy Dixon who bounced back from a recent car smash to post a 62 points 6th in her first run, followed by a 56 points 5th.

The day’s events were rounded off by Mt Hutt J skiers where Ginny Gemmell had two wins over Rachel Rolleston. Annabel Ottawa and Gemma Jones each had a turn on the 3rd place podium step.

In the J men’s division Ruapehu Sports’ Remy Campbell won and local Ryan Taylor improved his silver to gold in the second run. Barnaby Carey took home two bronzes.

The Mt Hutt race crew put on a professional and well-run competition, ably assisted by many local and out of town volunteers.
 
The National Youth Series continues this week with slalom and Giant Slalom races scheduled.
Tony Gavigan
Methven
021 075 3704

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