SNOW ASSURED FOR FESTIVAL

Press, 29 July 1976, Page 13

SNOW ASSURED FOR FESTIVAL

The second Queenstown Winter Festival, to be held for a week from this Sunday, has already been assured of success by the best snow conditions on Coronet Peak for eight years. Last year the first festival was spoilt to a large degree by a light covering of snow on the mountain. In particular, it hampered the running of some of the ski-ing events, notably the Coronet Cup. The highlights of the week will be three separate ski-ing events—the inaugural New Zealand CocaCola freestyle ski-ing championship on Monday and Tuesday, the Jim Beam pro-am on Thursday, and the Coronet Cup on Saturday and Sunday. Besides these events,- a

number of other attractions have been arranged both at Coronet Peak and in Queenstown. They include a Snow Queen contest, a ski trade show, and numerous novelty events such as a sheepdog snow derby at Coronet Peak, a waiters’ race in tire Queenstown Mall, and a tug-of-war on skis at the Peak. More than $3500 in prize money is being offered in the freestyle ski-ing championship—the richest event of the three to be held at Coronet Peak. The championship, which will be for the New Zealand Freestyle Challenge Cup, as well as other prize money, will be held over two days, the first set aside for eliminations and the second for finals. Freestyle ski-ing is split

into three categories — ballet, moguls and aerials. Judging will be done by a panel using the Professional Freestyle Association rules used in the United States and Europe. The rules will ensure fairness in judging because there is a wide variation in the exercises the competitors perform throughout the event.

The standard of competition in the freestyle event is expected to be very high. Last year’s winner, Dean Jones, will not defend his title but there will still be plenty of competition for the title.

John Urwin has spent three years in Europe and has attended two Salomon freestyle camps in France. He is a specialist mogul skier, but is also very fluent in ballet. Huna Urwin was a member of the Look Nevada— Radio Monte Carlo freestyle team which competed in Europe last winter. The team made an extensive tour of all the major ski fields in France and she gained valuable experience in the sport. She ended the season by taking fifth place in the European Freestyle Cup.

Lynn Klap, with Mrs Urwin, was also a member of the team and emerged last season as one of the finds on the freestyle circuit. Her performances were in world class and she was second in her first European Cup.

Mrs Klap was the only woman in the freestyle competition in Europe performing layout flips, and is thought to be the only woman in Europe or the United States executing this exercise. Besides these world class

entrants there will be a large contingent of New Zealanders led by Tim Stewart—the former New Zealand alpine ski-ing representative — who finished third over-all last year. The second major event of the week will be the pro-am. It is the second year Jim Beam has sponsored the event and it has increased its prize money this year by $5OO to $l5OO. The event will be run on the same basis as previous years. Al! professionals in New Zealand are eligible to enter, and a team of New Zealand’s 10 top amateurs has been chosen to contest the event. Hans Hoffer, the coach of the Canterbury B ski-ing team, and winner of the pro-am last year, will

defend his title, and the runner-up. the New Zealand Olympic representative, Brett Kendall, is among the 10 amateurs selected. Eliminations for the proam will be held on a time trials basis, the fastest 16 going into the final rounds. The event is held on a dual slalom course. The competitors get only one run in the preliminary round, but in the final round they race on both courses, set side by side. Among the other professionals entered is Ross Ewington, a former New Zealand champion and Olympic representative. It is not known if Chris Womersley, also a former New Zealand champion, will start in the event.