Ben Wordsworth reports
Following a six week training camp in Mammoth Mountain, the OWI halfpipe team has commenced another big winter of training here in Perisher Blue ski resort. Perisher plays host to the team because it has one of the only super pipes in Australia.

We have had some good training over the past weeks and are getting ready to fire up for the opening World Cup in Chile.

This should be a huge event, with two halfpipe events and an SBX on the program. The World Cup will also be the first opportunity our athletes will have in the 2005/06 season to post a qualifying result for the Olympics.

The team will move to New Zealand for a two week training camp prior to the World Cup, where we will get the opportunity to train in a full size Zaag super pipe at Snowpark resort. The Zaag pipe is the exact shape of the 2006 Olympic halfpipe in Italy. The athletes will be working hard on their competition runs to arrive in Chile well prepared.

We will have a full team for the World Cup opener, including Andrew Burton and Torah Bright. Mitchell Allan, Ben Mates and Holly Crawford will also be attempting to qualify a spot for the Torino Games.

The SBX athletes attending the World Cup will be Damon Haylor, Emily Thomas, and Kai Robrahn.

All athletes are injury-free going into this season and ready to qualify for a spot on the Australian Olympic team.

Courtesy OWI/Sportcom


Members of the OWI halfpipe team (clockwise from front)
Andrew Burton, coach Ben Wordsworth, Hannah Trigger,
 Holly Crawford and Mitch Allan.