NZSnowboard.com - The home of New Zealand Snowboarding

9th November 2009

New Zealand Team Performs Well During Final Qualifying Competitions for the 2010 Winter Olympics

Snowboarder Rebecca Sinclair (Taupo) has posted one of her career best performances, placing 12th in halfpipe while competing among the best in the world at the LG Snowboard FIS World Cup in Saas-Fee, Switzerland yesterday.

With an eighth-place finish at last weeks Europa Cup against many of the World Cup field, Sinclair has had a very successful first leg of her 2009-2010 competition season.

With the thermometer sitting at minus-15 at Saas-Fee, Sinclair got down to business landing a technical first run with three 540 spin variations and a switch back 360 to finish. Slow snow conditions made amplitude a problem and the score put Sinclair in 24th place after her first run.

In her second run, Sinclair landed one of the most progressive runs of the day, with a Crippler-7 first hit, back-to-back 540s lower down the run and an ally-oop 360 on her last hit.

Teammate Kendall Brown (Mt. Manganui) finished the day in 17th place while Paula Mitchell (Wellington) struggled with both runs ending up in 30th place.
 
The men had it tough with a weather day prior to the competition and the qualifying taking place in a blizzard on the top of a glacier at 3600 metres.  The conditions were so bad that the mountain was closed to the public and riders were transported to the pipe by snow cat.

Whangamatas Ben Stewart braved the storm landing his first run and placing 26th to clinch 50 crucial world ranking points and remain within the Olympic Quota cut-off following the event.  Mitch Brown (Mt. Manganui) struggled in his first run, but landed his second, ending up in 43rd place.

On the frontline, Japans Kasuhiro Kokubo was on fire with a clean first run and spectacular jumps claiming victory ahead of Mathieu Crepel (FRA) and Peetu Piiroinen (FIN).  On the ladies side, Torah Bright (AUS) dominated with two faultless runs and left Xuetong Cai (CHN) and Sophie Rodriguez (FRA) behind.

Overall the New Zealand team performed well in tough conditions, said Head Coach Tom Willmott.  Over the next two weeks the team will enjoy a well-earned break after being on the go since the 1st of June.

The team will reconvene in Colorado late November for the next training camp, including a Grand Prix event at Copper and a Winter Dew Tour event at Breckenridge.

After Christmas it is on to Kreischberg, Austria for the final World Cup of the Olympic qualifying period where some of the New Zealand team will be competing with the rest of the world to achieve Olympic qualification and those already qualified will be completing their final preparation in North America.







LINK:   www.snowsports.co.nz







Snow Sports New Zealand is the official governing body and National Sports Organisation representing all snow sports in New Zealand. The NZ Snowboard Union is a member of Snow Sports New Zealand.