Ski-ing To Womersley And Miss R. Willis

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32361, 29 July 1970, Page 19

Ski-ing To Womersley And Miss R. Willis

(From Our Skl-in# Reporter)

QUEENSTOWN.

Only a bad fall or disqualification is likely to stop C. Womersley (Canterbury) winning the New Zealand ski-ing championship for the second year in succession.

sec behind Miss Willis in sec- 1 ond place. In third place 11.8 i sec further back was Miss M. < Blakely (Auckland) last year’s ’ national champion. - Miss Blakely was given a re-run on the first course and had a clear run, although it was slow. On the second course she was 4.ssec faster even though she missed two gates, which she recovered. P. Tocker (Canterbury) . skied intelligently to gain fourth place in the men's event. Knowing he only had to stay upright on the tricky course to gain a good placing' he took the course carefully and recorded times of Imin 07.1 sec and Imin 07.7 sec. 1 The final event counting towards the over-all championship, the downhill, and considered to be the most dan-i gerous of the three races, will be run on Friday. Vesterday's slalom results 1 (aggregate time for two runs) were:— Men. —C. Womersley (Canter- i bury). 1:51.9, 1: D John (Strat- , ford). 2:7.0, 2; J. Armstrong (Wellington), 2:8.7. 3: P. Tocker , (Christchurch). 2:14.8. 4: A. Chance (Dunedin), 2:15.0. 5: D. Spence (Queenstown), 2:25.0. 0. Women. —Miss R. Willis (Dunedin), 2:10.2. 1: Miss S.

Ryan (Queenstown), 2:28.7, 2; Miss M. Blakely (Auckland), 2:40.5, 3; Miss R. Harrison (Auckland), 2:43.1, 4; Miss J. Williams (Dunedin), 2:50.3, 5; Miss M. Armstrong (Hawera), 2:55.3, 6.

He went a step nearer this year’s title yesterday when he won the slalom, the second of the three championship events, with another superb display of ski-ing. Yesterday’s race at Coronet Peak consisted of two runs on different courses, the aggregate times for these determining placings. Womersley’s aggregate time of Imin 15.9 sec was 15.1 sec better than that of the runner-up, D. John (Stratford). Womersley’s times for the two runs were 55.95ec and 56sec and no other skier covered either course in less than a minute. John, with a time of Imin 01.5 sec was the nearest to breaking the min ute. J. Armstrong (Wellington), was at first credited with a time of 54.2 sec in his first run, supposedly I.7sec better than Womersley’s run. However to anybody watching it was obvious his time was slower and Armstrong’s time later had lOsec added to it. FOUR FALL The first four women fell at exactly the same spot on the. first course, 10 gates from the finish of the 60-gate course. A gate at the top of an icy dip gave skiers little time to steady themselves for the next gate at the bottom. The fifth runner was Miss R Willis (Dunedin) who won the giant slalom on Monday with a fine run, but her first effort yesterday was even more remarakble. She negotiated the trouble spot with ease and recorded a time of Imin 04.4 sec, and her aggregate would have given her fourth place in the men’s event. Miss Willis at present appears the likely winder of the women’s championship and she has only to stay on her feet in the downhill, the final event, to almost certainly win the championship. Miss S. Ryan (Queenstown) was the only other woman to have two clear runs but her aggregate times left her 18.4