Winter Park, Colorado (22 February 2010) – For the fifth time in five years of racing at the Wells Fargo Ski Cup World Invitational, Paralympian Adam Hall has secured a Gold medal.

Hall is the first athlete to achieve five gold medals in this hotly contested event, where professional, world-class disabled ski racers go head-to-head for the prize money.

The best news for Hall is that his results here could well be indicative of how he will perform at the upcoming Paralympics.

With up to eight nations training at Winter Park with the National Sports Center for the Disabled (NSCD) and more than 20 athletes from these countries planning to compete at the upcoming Vancouver 2010 Paralympics, the event is a good gauge of Hall’s potential to bring home the Gold for New Zealand.

“It’s an honour and a privilege to be a part of this programme and to help build the profile of the National Sports Centre for the Disabled here in Winter Park,” said Hall.

“This event is not about winning for me, though it’s always good to take a win and even more of an accomplishment to take five of five.”

“The NSCD has helped changed thousands of peoples’ lives and continues to do so.”

The Wells Fargo Ski Cup World Invitational is the only race of its kind on the Disabled Circuit, taking place every February in Winter Park, Colorado in the US.

This year also marks the 40th anniversary of the NSCD, currently the biggest and most respected disabled programme of its kind in the world.

The weekend is focused on raising awareness of the programme and most importantly raising money for the NSCD. The success has been huge this year, with up to a quarter million USD being raised.

Raph’s Blog (unedited as Raph intended!)

We left Silverthorne Wednesday last week, had a quick gas stop and proceeded to Aspen, Co. Its a pretty short journey, we traveled through the Vail pass so most of the journey you’re surrounded by cliffs and mountainous terrain. Once out of the Vail pass we had a brunch break in Glenwood Springs which is a reasonably small town that smells like Rotarua Then headed to Buttermilk, Aspen.

We climbed out of the Everly’s ute, my coach and chauffeur I jumped into the back feeling very tired I put on my ski pants and grab my bag, we head to registration for The Aspen Open.

We are amused by Ryan Read being as sloff like as usual while we stand in the waiting line. we make it through get our pass and free swag and off we go to ski, Booyah.

We head up to pipe training its the longest pipe i’ve skied and one of the highest at 22ft the unfortunate thing was i had been training in break and coppers 18ft pipe which was a bummer but i got used to it after a while.

Training went ok i didnt really get my run, but all in all Everly said it was a pretty good day.

We rise at 6:30 on Thursday morning in The Comfort Inn’ in carbondale 30 minutes out of Aspen, I got showered and dressed slowly and walk to the breakfast room, i have a terrible athlete’s breakfast one orange was all i could digest. We meet up with Everly and head to Buttermilk Deb(mum) goes and gets my Bib for me while i put my boots on.

Ev, Hugo and I head to the Pipe for a half hour training to be honest i was having a terrible time training, I just wasn’t stomping but the time past quickly and i managed to get one more run than most people. I decided to try a cork 9 but i didnt stomp it, but still I got my confidence back with them doing them.

I headed back to the chair where Everly was standing he was amped that I did that.

I was first running which I was bummed about at the start, but Everly enlightened me on how sick it was to be first on a fresh pipe nice and soft, so anyway we headed up and 5 seconds after i got there they said drop! that was sick, nothing to think about no butterflies, so off i went dropping in the pipe as fast as i could and threw a Flare first hit followed by a straight air to cork 5 then straight air to cork 9 but crashed which sucked but i was still stoked we headed back up and the same again i got the to cork 9 with flying colours then when i went for it i tryed to grab tale but that made me flip more so i ended in a 5, that sucked so i followed it up by a right 5. I get to the bottom pretty upset I didnt stomp my run, Deb was delighted, but she didnt understand you loose alot of points for repeated tricks, oh well i ended in a 12th or 13th in my heat not good enough to qualify.

Hugo and me decided to ride Snowmass as my next 4 comps were there. I had the Double halfpipe and slopestyle on Monday and Tuesday.

Friday we took it easy at Buttermilk Saturday we went to snowmass it was probably one of the sickest days here, yet we started off on sticky boxes and boring jumps then endulged in fresh knee deep pow. Its amazing how not to many Aspeners ride the trees! There where log drops rock drops rollovers intense lines and so on, at one stage there was a cat track that i liked to boost off on one of my attempt of it i launched off spotted my landing as a small tree so i freaked but somehow managed to grab it in mid air and miss my stuff. It was amazingly sick day.

The next day i went out with Kirsten fellow team summit rider for half the day till Everly got back from Aerials divisionals where Ian one of team summit took out both of the events in it which was sick. i was trying to get used to the jumps but i really didnt like them, I didnt mind the rails and still had fun.

The next day we got out at 7am and headed to Snowmass for Pipe that whole day I didnt stomp one run I always fell on my nine but some how i came out with a third place which I was pretty stoked about that .

Next day we got out at 7am again. i wasnt feeling the course at all I did 3 runs in training and got one spin over the first jump but other than that nothing, I opted to do one run just so i could get my points for Junior Olympics so i did octo 3, to nose butter 3 off the knuckle, to hand drag 3 and stomped. which i felt was the sickest run i could of done I was happy, so instead of doing my other runs i went and took photos.

So it was a pretty exhausting but fun week but now Im sick so that sucks but stay tuned for my next post raph.

Raph
ATTACK

Kendall Brown pushes through the pain

Vancouver, 18 February 2010: New Zealand’s Kendall Brown pushed through the pain of a dislocated shoulder to finish an outstanding 15th in the women’s halfpipe at Cypress Mountain in Vancouver making her New Zealand’s top performer at Vancouver 2010.

Brown’s shoulder popped out in training just 30 minutes before her first run. Coach Tom Willmott credits the 20 year old with impressive mental and physical strength. “To come back from an injury that would have put most people out of competition was tough. She dealt with the pressure – it rolled off her like water off a duck’s back,” he said.

Brown popped her shoulder back in herself mid-run. It was later strapped by New Zealand physio Sheryl Dickenson.

Brown was delighted with her performance. “I’m stoked. It was fun to ride on the pipe today and it was in amazing condition – they’d kept it really good for us. I landed a good clean first run but just missed a big trick on my second. My shoulder was sore and aching but painkillers kept it pretty much under control.”

Coach Willmott said Brown had followed a plan. “She’d gone for a clean run with plenty of amplitude on her first run. She then went for broke on her second knowing she needed to increase her score. She sketched on her second to last landing and didn’t quite pull off the 720 she’d hoped for.”

Finishing in fifteeth is nonetheless a very impressive result the young athlete.

At her second Olympic Games, Brown was still in awe as she prepared for her first run “Vancouver is just that much bigger and more impressive,” she said, comparing her Olympic experience today to the Torino Olympic Games four years ago where she finished 24th.

Brown is looking towards a strong future in snowboarding. “I’m going to focus on getting my shoulder fixed and then will be looking to conquer Russia (Olympic Games 2014).”

Meanwhile, Willmott praised the high calibre of women’s competition today at Cypress. “Clearly, I’m stoked with Kendall,” he said. “But I’m very proud of Bex (Sinclair) who performed under pressure and to land a crippler seven is outstanding. At just 19, she’ll be a threat in 2014.

Ju (Bray) did the biggest backside ever in her first run. She was smooth with the cab seven and it was a real shame she crashed. It was a run that could’ve made the finals.”

The snowboarding competition for New Zealand at Vancouver 2010 is now complete.

Kendall Brown Advances

Vancouver, Canada – With a combined score of 40.9 Kendall Brown has just advanced through to the semi-finals in Snowboard Halfpipe at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, placing 15th in the qualifiers.

Showing good amplitude and a solid second run, Brown was all smiles and knew she’d made it through in the top 18.

The top six competitors will advance straight through to the finals with 12 competing in the semi-finals for the six remaining spots.

The semi-finals take place at 1 p.m. today (NZT) followed by the finals at 3 p.m. NZT.

Brown will need to step it up a bit to make it through to the next level but according to Snow Sports New Zealand Coach Director Adam Dooney, “ She still has a few tricks up her sleeve.”

Teammates Rebecca Sinclair and Juliane Bray failed to make it through placing, 21st and 24th respectively in qualifying.

In a day which saw many falls, teammate Mitchell Brown also struggles

Vancouver, Canada (17 February 2010) – New Zealand Olympian James Hamilton missed qualification in today’s snowboard halfpipe event on Cypress Mountain by a mere 1.6 points. He finished 10th but needed a ninth or better to move to the next round of competition.

Photo: James Hamilton Credit: Getty Images Sport

Hamilton was in the same heat as United States mega-star Shaun White whose pioneering exploits have taken the sport to unprecedented elevations, twists and turns.

After falling in his first run and collecting just 5.2 points, Hamilton recovered with 28 in his second.

Coach Tom Willmott says that was a relief: “We could see the judges just wanted a clean run so we went with a front 1080 cab seven which is Jimmy’s speciality. It meant he could get in five hits [on the pipe]. His run was solid. It was good that having crashed first, Jimmy was able to deal with the pressure. More experienced riders crashed both times.”

Hamilton says he adapted as the day went on.

“In the first run I was affected with so many people around and the fact it was the Olympics. In the second run I just let go and was pleased. But it wasn’t as technical as it could have been after I crashed – maybe that was a bad decision…”

Mitchell Brown fell right at the end of his first run for 18.4 points then fell midway through his second for 15.2.

Photo: Mitchell Brown Credit: Getty Images Sport

“There were a few positives. I landed some new tricks at good amplitude,” said Brown.

Willmott reflected on his charge’s effort: “He went for broke, that was his only option. It came unstuck. It’s disappointing but I’m proud of both their efforts.”

In a general summary Willmott commented on the number of crashes over the course of the day: “There had been limited training time and the athletes were generally fatigued as they’d pushed themselves hard the night before.”

In the second final run, Finland’s Peetu Piiroinen was the most threatening, with amplitude and sass in his combination of tricks which was enough for him to claim the silver medal. American Scott Lago picked up the bronze.

That left White having won the gold medal. It also left him with a second run with absolutely no pressure. He didn’t disappoint, marveling the crowd with a stunning combination of a double cork, a 1080 and then the famous Double McTwist. The judges were impressed, scoring him 9.7’s out of a possible perfect 10.

Tune in tomorrow for flagbearer Juliane Bray, Kendall Brown and Rebecca Sinclair in the women’s halfpipe snowboarding from 9.30am at Cypress Mountain.

SHAUN WHITE VS THE WORLD

After a great season for the 06/07 TTR World Snowboard Champion, Shaun White, he arrives at Vancouver as the stand out favorite for the Olympic Gold Medal. With his infamous bag of tricks including back to back Double Corks, this seasons must have, and his very own Double McTwist 12 he seems unstoppable. Watch here then as we run down through the serious halfpipe snowboarding contenders and you can make your own mind up about who’ll be biting at Shaun’s heels during the halfpipe at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. Shaun White, Iouri Podladtchikov, Peetu Piiroinen, Kazuhiro Kokubo, Arthur Longo, Mathieu Crepel, Jeff Batchelor, Stale Sandbech, Markus Keller, Markku Koski, Louie Vito, Christian Haller, Greg Bretz, Scotty Lago

Freeride World Tour

Solid performance at first two stops earns New Zealand’s Janina Kuzma a wild card into the third stop at Squaw Valley

Fieberbrunn, Austria – With a fourth place finish at the second stop of the Freeride World Tour in Fieberbrunn, New Zealand’s Janina Kuzma has moved up to the number three spot in the Freeride World Tour rankings and has received a wild card entry for the third stop at Squaw Valley .

On the challenging north face of Wildseeloder, 14 riders competed for a purse of 8.000 Euro and points for the overall tour ranking.

A perfectly sunny day and a layer of fresh snow made for great, yet difficult conditions, as the base was rather shallow. Therefore aggressive, fluid skiing was in demand.

Defending Freeride World Tour champion, Ane Enderud had the best run of the day followed by Janette Hargin of Sweden. Austrian Lorraine Huber placed third.

The third tour stop follows at the end of the month in the United States where riders will get to ski the legendary Tram Face in Squaw Valley.

Teammate Sam Smoothy also competed but took a fall and sustained an injury to his leg, which resulted in a helicopter evacuation to the hospital.

NZers in the Olympic cross-country Ski

Ben Koons and Katie Calder, two New Zealand athletes of extraordinary aerobic fitness, take to the Vancouver Olympic cross-country ski course tomorrow at Whistler.

The sport is rated as one which sees athletes struggling to extremes with oxygen debt, such are the demands of the course’s ascents, descents and flats.

There are two contrasting styles involved. In freestyle, athletes manoeuvre their skis in a skating motion, basically doing whatever allows them to go as quickly as possible. This style is said to be about eight percent quicker than the classical technique which has skis moving forward in two parallel pre-groomed tracks.

Calder races the 10-kilometre freestyle before venturing into the individual classic pursuit, 15km pursuit (7.5km classic/7.5km freestyle) and then the mass start 30km classic later in the programme.

“Classic requires more upper body strength than freestyle because, for example, on the flat parts you use both poles to propel yourself forward rather than gliding like an ice skater. Your legs aren’t being used as much.”

Koons races the men’s equivalent to Calder – a 15-kilometre freestyle, an individual classic pursuit, a 30km pursuit (15km classic/15km freestyle) and then the mass start 50km classic.

He stresses the importance of having systems in place to tolerate physical pain.

“Mental preparation is important. Tomorrow is about 40 minutes whereas the 50k will take over two hours. You’ve got to have a good head for it.”

Calder agrees: “You have to enjoy pushing yourself to the absolute limit, going further when your body tells you it can’t.”

There’s also an element of relief to finally be at the Games.

“I have just been training in the United States at altitude so it’s good to be breathing oxygen again,” says Koons while Calder says the year has been tailored to this fortnight:

“I haven’t tapered off for any events before now. I’m hoping for a big jump in form as a result.”

Each registered course for these types of race has to have a certain amount of elevation. It’s uphill straight out of the start then there are some technical twisty downhill sections. Another feature is the fast downhill corner into the finish straight.

“It’s a good course but it’s been icy so there could be a couple of crashes on the technical corners,” says Calder.

One advantage to Koons’ make-up for his events is that he is used to extremes having earned a mechanical and environmental engineering degree from the American Ivy League University Dartmouth. He used that qualification in sites such as Rwanda.

“I worked on supplying electricity to villages that weren’t on the national grid. Where I worked there was no power or running water for three months. I got excited by the arrival of the delivery vehicle full of coke and banana beer after a while.”

His spirit of adventure extends beyond that too.

“A while back I went cycling with my brother in western China. We started in Yunnan province and pedalled across the Tibetan plateau, all the way to the far west next to Pakistan. It was a crazy adventure in some pretty wild places at times. In fact we were technically illegal because we didn’t have the foreign permits. It meant doing a lot of the provincial crossings at night. Endurance-wise it was great training.”

Calder has looked elsewhere for inspiration, like her ipod song collection. Tom Petty’s ‘I won’t back down’ has been getting a good run.

“You can blame my Dad,” says Calder. “We only had three tapes in the car when I was growing up. Tom Petty, Queen and Creedence Clearwater Revival – old habits die hard so that song is still in my top 50 favourites.”

Perhaps ‘Learning to fly’ is there too as she contemplates tomorrow’s challenging slopes.

Byron’s turn to stand on the podium

Following in brother Jossi’s footsteps, today it was Byron’s turn to stand on the podium, placing third in Superpipe at the Aspen Open.
Wells had the highest consistency in amplitude, dropping a switch 720, alley oop flatspin 540 to back to back 900 combos to large 540.

Wells flying high Credit: Getty Images Sport

Qualifying first in the 33 man semi-final with a smooth and stylish run, Wells was overtaken in the finals by Telluride’s Gus Kenworthy and Walter Wood.

According to Freeskier Magazine’s Shay Williams, “The doctor was in the house today and Byron showed the world he’s ready to put a hurting on the halfpipe community.”

Bryon’s little brother Beau-James made it through the qualifiers to the semi-finals but failed to make it to the finals. Wanaka’s Raphael Beazley also competed but did not make it through the qualifiers.

The Aspen Open, which is held in the same pipe as the Winter X Games, has grown to be one of the larger (if not the largest in North America) open events left. With the US Open defunct and the Opens tour gone, Aspen/Snowmass has not only filled a need, but filled it with an X Games caliber course.

Men’s Superpipe Results:

1) Gus Kenworthy
2) Walter Wood
3) Byron Wells
4) Brian Kish
5) Patrick Baskins
6) Evan Schwartz
7) Marshall Lacroix
Joss Christensen
9) Torin Yater-Wallace
10) Andy Partridge

New Zealand’s Sam Smoothy stole the show

Janina Kuzma finishes in fourth place

Engadin, Switzerland (11 February 2010) – New Zealand’s Sam Smoothy stole the show yesterday at the Freeride Engadinsnow, a Freeride World Qualifier, earning valuable points in his quest to gain entry to the Freeride World Tour.

Photo: Podium at Engadinsnow 2010 Credit: swiss-image.ch/Photo by Andy Mettler

Smoothy showed the crowd a top class ride completing a technically difficult run with the most fluidity and flow. France’s Mathieu Imbert placed second at just 0.2 points off of Smoothy’s score. Third place went to Thibaud Duchosal, also from France.

This is the second year in a row to see a kiwi atop the men’s podium, Wanaka’s Fraser McDougall won the event last year but was unable to compete this year due to a recent injury.

After a tumble at the bottom of the course, Janina Kuzma, New Zealand’s top female big mountain skier and winner of last year’s event, just missed the podium with a fourth place finish.

The competition took place on the legendary Piz Corvatsch, a north face which athletes accessed by abseiling from the top of a cable car pylon. The face is respected by even the most seasoned riders.

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