Cross country skiers from around the world gathered at Snow Farm NZ on Thursday for the first of the FIS ANC Cup Series races with a strong field of men and women from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada and France.
In the men’s 15km Classic Race a tight bunch of five skiers were neck and neck for the first two laps. Eventual winner Tomio Kanamaru (JPN) broke from the group at the bottom of the last steep hill to finish ahead of nine-times Canadian national champion, Robin McKeever and Masaaki Kozu (JPN) in a time of 43:15:20. McKeever has also won two gold and one silver medal athlete 2002 Paralympics, acting as the sighted guide for his brother Brian.
The Japanese skiers have been living and training at the Snow Farm and their altitude training and local knowledge has stood them in good stead. Kanamaru said,
This is my first race of the season and I was very happy to win. We love coming to train at the Snow Farm and enjoy competing against the New Zealand and Australian skiers in these races. Conditions were fast and we had a great group at the front”
First New Zealander home was 18-year-old Andy Pohl in sixteenth place. “I was very pleased with my race and it is just so great to have a race with such high caliber skiers right here at the Snow Farm,” said Pohl. Pohl will race the sprint and freestyle races on Saturday and Sunday this weekend and finish off the season training at the Snow Farm.
In November Pohl will return to Canada for a second season, racing in the domestic USA and Canadian competitions as a build up to the World Junior Championships to be held in Chamonix France in January 2009.
In the women’s 10 km Classic Race, Olympic bronze medalist, Milaine Theriault (CAN) led from the start, winning in a time of 34:39:90. She built up a solid lead after one lap and had extended this to a one-minute lead over Katie Calder (NZE) by the finish. Calder is a recent addition to the New Zealand Cross Country Ski Team after moving from Australia where she has established herself as one of Australasia’s top women skiers. In third place was Sumiko Ishigaki from Japan.
Wanaka 15-year-old Anna Hogg put in a strong performance in the women’s race as an invited participant, keeping pace with the strong Japanese women’s team members. Hogg is a member of the NZ Nordic Sports Development programme and has benefited from the season’s coaching under visiting American coach Alexei Sotskov.
The Series continues this weekend with the Sprint Races on Saturday August 16 and the Freestyle Races on Sunday August 17.
A new gondola began operating from one of Spain’s leading resorts, Baqueira Beret, last Saturday August 2nd. The lift will improve the experience for skiers and boarders visiting the resort next winter and was described as, “Very good news” by a resort spokeswoman.
The new gondola, which was first initiated in 2005/6, helps to open up the Vall De Ruda by connecting the main resort at 1500m with the Ruda area and incorporating a new intermediate station en route, which should ease congestion.
The lift has 78 cabins each of which can hold nine people, and the total capacity is 3000 skiers per hour. www.baqueira.es
With the snow conditions across most New Zealand ski resorts being as good as they have for the past fifteen years, international racers have began training for the upcoming FIS racing season.
Mt Hutt has received its first intake of ski racers including overall 2007 World Champion Aksel Lund Svindal who’s due to arrive this week, back from a horrific crash at the Birds of Pray Downhill in Vail Colorado last year.
Svindal and his Norwegian team mates are undertaking two weeks of intense training at Australasia’s only Downhill training facility.
Mt Hutt Ski Area Manager Dave Wilson said Mt Hutt’s reputation for attracting the world’s fastest alpine skiers had captured the attention of Red Bull who now sponsor the facility.
As a sponsor of the world famous Kitzbuel Downhill in Austria and supporter of athletes such as Eric Guay, Lindsey Vonn and Daren Rhalves, Red Bull has a strong presence on the Alpine World Cup Circuit. With Red Bull’s support we can take the next step towards becoming a truly world class race training facility, and one where we can showcase these amazing athletes to our guests.”
Mr Wilson said spectators to Mt Hutt this season would be treated to first class alpine skiing by some of the very best athletes in the world.
Watching these professionals in action is a unique experience and one which would be difficult to enjoy anywhere else in the world. We encourage everyone to come up and at some stage and check it out.”
The Arena will also host the Austrian Men’s and Women’s Alpine Ski Teams and the Swiss Women’s Alpine Ski Team during August and early September. Included in the training line up are previous world champions Marlies Schild and Nicole Hosp from the Austrian Women’s Alpine Ski Team.
Skiercross Olympic Gold Medal contender Errol Kerr is a regular visitor to Mt Hutt and returns again this year but not with his old Far West Alpine Ski Team from the United States. He’s now a representative of Jamaica and is the only Alpine skier representing the Caribbean country at the 2010 Olympic Games.
The Austrian Men’s Alpine Ski Team, which always has a strong presence on World Cup podiums, will bring a group of top athletes to train for the Super G and Downhill Alpine events.
First timers at Mt Hutt last season, the Swiss Women’s Alpine Ski Team, are retuning again this year but with a larger team including young skier Lara Gut who’s set to make an even bigger mark on the Alpine World Cup Circuit this year.
The Red Bull International Race Training Arena consists of a 1,460m track that starts at the top of Mt Hutt and finishes in the base area. Athletes reach speeds of 130 km/h while hitting jumps that send them 40m through the air. The Arena is located in the main basin of Mt Hutt offering spectators great views from top to bottom.
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