2007 National Team Reception

Australian athletes have just completed the most successful International season in Australian winter sport history.

Australia finished the season with 2 World Cup champions, one runner up and a further 2 athletes in the World’s top 10. These performances include an unprecedented 3 medal haul at the Freestyle World Championships, an incredible 19 World Cup medals throughout the 2006/2007 World Cups season by 5 different athletes across three disciplines.

Ski & Snowboard Australia together with the Olympic Winter Institute will be holding a National Team reception in celebration of the outstanding success achieved during the 2006/7 International season.

The National Team reception will also serve as an opportunity to present the SSA Snowsports athlete of the Year, Individual discipline athletes of the year and coach of the year awards. Sport Development awards including junior athletes of the year, clubs and school awards will be presented during the domestic season at events such as Discipline National Championships/Major events, and state and National Interschool championships.

The National Team Reception will bring together many prominent members of the snow sports industry, including Australia’s best winter athletes and coaches, resorts, media and the snow sports retail sector.

A limited number of tickets are available to the extended SSA family including registered competitors, members and interested parties.

Venue: Royce Hotel, 379 St. Kilda Rd, Melbourne
Date: Thursday 26th April
Time: 7pm – 9pm
Dress: Lounge Suit
Cost: $80 per person.

Insurance

SSA has been in lengthy negotiations on behalf of all clubs and associations, to seek suitable renewal terms for Public Liability, Professional Indemnity, Personal accident and Directors & Officers cover.

We are delighted to offer renewal terms for clubs, camps and associations for 2007/2008, and confirm that the relevant premiums remain the same as the previous two insurance periods.
It is vital that all clubs/associations that have previously enjoyed cover under the master policy continue to support this initiative. The Sports cover policy is the only policy available that adequately meets the specific needs of the sport including cover for race clubs and programs overseas. Without these unique aspects of the policy our sport is greatly restricted. Non-competition clubs and associations can enjoy the benefit of these reduced premium levels, due in large part to the high level of support this policy has received from the wider skiing community.

Previously insured clubs/organisations will be receiving renewal notices in the mail over the coming days. By following the link below you can download an application form for the 2007/2008 insurance cover which includes Directors and Officers Insurance and an option for personal accident cover for your members and professional indemnity cover for coaches.

To encourage early take up of the insurance cover, Ski & Snowboard Australia is in a position to pass on a 10% rebate off the total premium for applications and payments received before the 1st May 2007. After which the published premiums will be applicable.

Public Liability Application Form

Public Liability Policy Wording

Alpine News

NSWIS/SSA National Alpine Development Program
In a solid return to form following a difficult and crash-ridden World Juniors campaign in Flachau/Zauchensee, NSWIS/SSA National Alpine Development Team member, Katya Crema has fought off fatigue and some aching, tired muscles to finish 11th at the Canadian National Alpine Championships Giant Slalom in Whistler, British Columbia.

In wet and blustery conditions, with poor visibility and a rapidly deteriorating track, Crema backed up a solid 1st run for the day that had taken her from 36th to 17th, to post the 9th fastest 2nd run time and finish a respectable 11th overall.

While dramatically hip-checking at the end of the flats in the pursuit of her time of 1.16.28, Crema still managed to pick herself up and charge down the remainder of the race course, in the process beating a number of the Canadian National Team members along with women from the US Ski Team and other Canadian Provincial team members.
Read More
 

Cross Country News

Russian Sprint Tour 
Ben Sim has just completed the first day of a series of races in Russia. The "Sprint Tour" is an invitation only event and has four competitions in four days, in the towns of Severo-Uralsk in the Ural mountains and Yugorsk and Khanty-Mansiysk in west Siberia. The big international names are Larsson, Lind and Jonsson from Sweden, Botvinov from Austria, Pasini from Italy, and Sim from Australia. Plus many big Russian stars. However these are not normal sprint races - each day has a different format, as detailed below:

Stage I Point race (sprint-criterium).
Stage II Mountain sprint.
Stage III Supersprint (head to head match sprint).
Stage IV: FIS sprint (normal FIS rules)

In the first day of competition on March 28 there were 12 laps of a 540m course for qualification, then 16 laps for the finals. Simbo didn't make the A-final, though he had good company alongside olympic gold medalists Bjorn Lind (sprint) and Yvgeni Dementiev (pursuit). Dementiev won the B-final, with Simbo ending up 7th out of 10. The final was won by Vassili Rotchev, the 2005 World Champion in sprint, ahead of Emil Jonsson from Sweden. More details can be found on the Russian Ski66 website, which has this section in English. Look for the Sprint Tour logo.

Freestyle News

World Junior moguls medal just eludes Cooper
Ramone Cooper has followed up his impressive World Freestyle Championship debut with a fourth placing in dual moguls in the World Junior Freestyle Championships, missing the podium by the barest margin.

After placing fifth in the single moguls on Sunday, Cooper again qualified poorly, landing a head-to-head meeting with the single moguls gold medallist Bryon Wilson of the USA in the opening round of the finals.

The 18-year-old Perisher Blue skier made it through that encounter, then accounted for Canadian Leonard Latour in the following round, before going down 17-18 in the semi-final to Kazakhstani skier Dmitry Reikherd, the eventual gold medallist.

In the battle for bronze against US skier Jay Bowman-Kirigin, the single moguls silver medallist, Cooper was again so near but yet so far, going down 17-18 for the second time.
 

Snowboard News

Snowboard Junior World Championships
Australia will be represented by four athletes at the Snowboard Junior World Championships in Bad Gastein, Austria beginning on the 11th of April. Athletes will contest Boardercross and Parallel Slalom and Giant Slalom at the Championships which was only recently confirmed and added to the FIS Calendar.

Alex Pullin is Australia’s greatest chance of medaling at the event after just completing his debut boardercross World Cup season with two top 20 results and two top 12 finishes in Europa and Nor Am Cup competition. Joining him at the Junior World Championships will be Julia De Campo, Annabelle Hickey and Bryan Taylor who have all spent the northern winter training and competing in North America.