Ski series to by-pass Coronet Peak

Press, 9 May 1978, Page 44

Ski series to by-pass Coronet Peak

By

TIM DUNBAR

Coronet Peak has been! dropped as one of the venues for the international ski-ing series in New Zealand in July but the Mount Hutt races will go ahead as planned. The inaugural series last year was staged solely at Mount Hutt but the initial programme for this season was extended to two venues, with an F.I.S. slalom and giant slalom held in conjunction with the Coronet Cup. But the convener of the organising committee (Mr Neil Harrison) said yesterady that the age stipulations of the International Ski Federation had worked against the bigger programme. “Skiers can’t apparently compete in F.I.S. races if they are under 15 and this unfairly precludes some young New Zealand registered racers,” he said. "It was not possible to run a separate race at Coronet Peak this year but, hopefully, next year the F.I.S. race at Coronet will be scheduled before the Mount Hutt races and apart from the Coronet Cup.”

This would mean that the youthful racers unable to take part in the F.I.S, event would still have a top circuit race (the Coronet Cup) open to them.

An F.I.S. downhill set down for July 23’ to 26 will still double as part of the national championships but this should cause no worries.

! “There are not so many entries for the downhill and probably nobody under 15. Mr Harrison said. Before the series began there was to have been a two-week training camp at Mount Hutt but this may yet have to be scrapped because of the lack of response from the biggest overseas team expected. “Not a thing has been heard from Australia. Goodness knows why.” Mr Harrison’s puzzlement is warranted by the fact that the Australians at Mount Hutt last year expressed enthusiasm 'for the training camp and this was the major reason for it being organised. So far the response to invitations sent out has been reasonable with specific inquiries about “incentives” (or “freebies” as Mr Harrison also put it) from Austria, Germany and Sweden and replies from several other continental countries.

At this stage the organisers cannot really tell the Swedes and others what is in it for them, as the sponsor has not yet been finalised. However, negotiations are taking place and Mr Harrison is hopeful that the sponsorship will be settled in the near future — and it is hoped that this “future” will be as near as possible with the series starting in just over 10 weeks.