Skiers In Training

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28938, 4 July 1959, Page 5

Skiers In Training

Eight of the South Island skiers who have been nominated as possibles for the 1960 Winter Olympic Games at Squaw Valley recently travelled to Coronet Peak, Queenstown, for an intensive race-training course. Their instructor was Karl Burtscher, former New Zealand amateur champion and, this season, professional instructor to the Christchurch Ski Club.

After teaching for the Canterbury Ski Association last season, Burtscher went to Austria and then to Canada for further instructing experience. This, his first school of the season, consisted of Misses P. Hall, P. Prain, A. Latham, C. Womersley, and John Willis, from Canterbury; Miss P. Earle, J. Kirk and M. Goddard, of Otago. Those invited to join the group were P. Willis (Canterbury), G. Coxhead and A. Watson '(Otago). The training week was purely a voluntary one, and proved well worth-while, for what they learned will stand them in good stead when they compete in the New Zealand championships at Coronet Peak in August. They are all eligible for the South Island championship at Craigiebum Valley in mid-September and, although they are not able to compete for the titles there, they have been invited to race against the rest of the New Zealand nominees at the North Island championships at Mount Ruapehu. This invitation is designed to give the Olympic selectors as much comparison as possible under the different North Island and South Island snow conditions.