Kiwis Earn Olympic Points At Snowboard Nationals

Kiwis Earn Olympic Points At Nz Snowboard Nationals

Poor visibility did nothing to dampen the determination of New Zealand’s top snowboarders at Cardrona Alpine Resort today as they competed for both the national champion title and FIS points to help towards their Olympic and World Cup bids in two snowboarder-x races.

The Kiwi riders were joined by competitors from all over the world including extreme sport legend Shaun Palmer (USA) and Mateusz Ligocki (POL) who’s currently ranked fifth in the world for snowboarder-x.

Auckland’s Richard Hunt not only celebrated his national champion title but also that his results from today’s racing gave him enough points for Olympic qualification. He won his first race ahead of the international field but had to make do with fourth in the second, behind Shaun Palmer in third, Mattias Blomberb (SWE) in second and Mateusz Ligocki in first. He now needs a top 25 finish in the World Cup to complete his qualification criteria, something he is aiming for in next week’s competition in Chile.

He will be joined by fellow Aucklander, Phil Dominick who also earned enough points today to meet Olympic qualification and will also be looking for a top 25 finish next week. Dominick finished third in his first race and sixth in the second.

A fall in her first race denied Juliane Bray of regaining her national title. This went to Liz Maze of Wanaka who finished second behind Denmark’s Julie Lundholt. However, Bray showed her true form in the second race, taking an easy victory ahead of Lundholt.

In the younger age groups who were competing for national titles, Will Harris repeated yesterday’s Giant Slalom success, adding National Youth Boarder-X Champion to his list. Kendall Brown of Mt Manganui took the girl’s youth title while Whitney Dagg of Dunedin took the junior girls national champion title. Joseph Mackenzie of Darfield also repeated his success of yesterday taking the junior boy’s title.

ENDS

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