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Discipline News
Alpine
Alpine ANC and SAC finals
The speed events in the Australia
New Zealand Cup (ANC) finals series
were successfully completed with
the running of the second super-G
and super combined races. Mt Hutt
(AUS) turned on some outstanding
weather and excellent snow conditions
on both days to ensure the athletes
were given every opportunity to
achieve good Continental Cup results.
Oskar Fischer, the Chairman of the
FIS Sub-Committee for Intercontinental
Cups, commented favorably on the
event: “The courses are good for
the athletes and it’s good to see
that 13 countries are represented
in these finals.”
The men’s ANC super-G series winner
is Brenton Fetterplace (AUS) with
180 points while the ladies’ series
finished in a tie between Kirsten
McGarry (IRE) and Janelle Miller
(NZE).
The super combined was strongly
contested, with Martin Harris (USA)
winning the men’s on 200 points,
and Jana Gantnerova (SVK) winning
the ladies’ on 200 points.
Finally, the good news for the Audi
FIS World Cup opening in Soelden
(AUT): It has already snowed 80
cm there in September which bodes
well for the start of the Northern
racing season!
Courtesy FIS Newsflash
Cross Country
National Rankings
The 2007 Australian National Rankings
are calculated from the percentage
behind the winner in each of the
national selection races. These
included two freestyle and two classic
races for the distance ranking,
and one race of each technique for
the sprint ranking.
Distance Ranking
Sprint Ranking
Courtesy the XC
Files
Freestyle
With the weather starting to get
warmer freestyle athletes will shortly
begin their water jump training
at the SSA Water Jump facility at
Seville. The facility provides freestyle
athletes with the opportunity to
fine tune and perfect their aerial
skills as well as learn new ones.
The first camp to use the facility
this season will be coached by mogul
sub-development coach Jussi Kinnunen
who will be taking a group of athletes
from NSW.
In late October the action heats
up with the Development Mogul program
training at the water jump park
before heading overseas to the northern
hemisphere winter to begin their
on snow training and competition
schedule.
Snowboard
Career-best placing launches
Pullin's season
Alex Pullin has made an impressive
start to his 2007/08 World Cup snowboard
cross campaign, finishing in 13th
place in the opening event of the
season in Valle Nevado, Chile.
It was a career-high placing for
the 20-year-old Mt Buller rider,
whose best result in his four previous
World Cup outings was 18th in Furano
in February this year.
Pullin qualified for the 32-man
finals rounds in 17th place in a
time of 57.46 seconds, 1.85 seconds
behind fastest qualifier Drew Neilson
of Canada, the reigning World Cup
champion. In a very tough first
round of the finals, Pullin faced
not only Neilson, but also world
number 2 Nate Holland of the USA.
But as OWI halfpipe Head Coach Ben
Wordsworth reports, the Australian
was not fazed by his opposition.
" Alex came out firing in his
first heat which was not easy having
two of the world’s best SBX riders,
Drew Neilson and Nate Holland, in
his heat," Wordsworth said
"He pushed through and stayed
on Drew’s tail the whole way, finishing
in second place and moving through
to the quarter finals."
The quarter final head was also
formidable, with Neilson in the
line up as well as three time World
Champion and three-time World Cup
champion Xavier Delerue of France.
More
Australian Junior Series
The fourth and final event of the
Australian Junior Series 07 was
held last weekend at Perisher Blue.
Young competitors from NSW, Victoria
and Queensland turned up on a perfect
blue-sky spring day for some impressive
riding. The crowd loved it. Congratulations
to the halfpipe winners Nathan Johnson
(17-18 yrs male), Sam Murphy (14
– 16 yrs male), Billy Hayman (11
– 13yrs male), and Michaela Davis-Meehan
(combined female). The event delivered
some excellent tricks and great
air in the pipe. The riders really
relaxed in the post competition
Expression Session which just went
off, with Sam Murphy and Patrick
Davis-Meehan vying for bragging
rights for the biggest air. Next
year promises to be even bigger
based on what all the riders did
in that final session…and look out
for some of those under-10 year
olds coming through like Emily Arthur
and Cameron Stavely.
The overall series winners were
announced on the day, with the top
riders clean sweeping and winning
every event. Congratulations to
Nathan Johnstone, Billy Hayman and
Michaela Davis-Meehan for an awesome
effort to win Slopestyle, Air and
Style, and both Halfpipe comps in
their respective age divisions.
More
Courtesy Stuart
Davis-Meehan
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