Top world skier will compete at Mt Hutt

Press, 24 June 1978, Page 56

Top world skier will compete at Mt Hutt

By

TIM DUNBAR

One of the few international racing ski-ers outstanding in all three disciplines will come to Mount Hutt next month for the F.I.S. series.

Willy Frommelt, who lives in the little European principality of Liechtenstein, proved his versatility in the world championships at Gar-misch-Partenkirchen, West Germany, last February.

In the giant slalom only the great Swede, Ingemar Stenmark, and Andreas Wenzel (also Liechtenstein) bettered Frommelt’s time of 3min 4.75 s for the two runs. Previously the Liechtenstein skier had taken bronze medals in the 1974 championships at St Moritz i (downhill) and the 1976

Winter Olympics at Innsbruck (slalom).

At Innsbruck, Frommelt also had creditable placings of twenty-first and seventeenth for the downhill and giant slalom respectively, giving him a combined performance short only of that by Gustavo Thoeni (Italy). The series promises to be a good one, with another top racer, Erik Haekr (Norway), confirmed as an entry earlier in the month. Further good news for the organisers came yesterday with the announcement that Europa Oil and U.T.A. French Airlines (South Pacific) would sponsor the series. Apart from Frommelt and Haker details of other over-

seas competitors are sketchy: three Frenchmen will attend but none of their names has been received and there has been no reply to invitations to Austria. The places reserved by the latter invitations have now been offered to Sweden. Mr Neil Harrison, convener of the organising committee, said yesterday there was every possibility that the Swedish girls’ team of three competitors and a coach would come to the series. Four skiers will come from Japan privately. There are also private entries from a Canadian, Robert Massey, and an unnamed Austrian at present in Auckland. About eight Australians are expected to com-

pete. The home field will con* sist of skiers with less than 80 New Zealand race points or who are members of regional teams.

Mr Harrison seemed reasonably happy with the entries but said the organising committee would have preferred to have issued the invitations itself: Australia will hold its own series after the New Zealand one and it was that country which issued the invitations offering free flights to the series.

“We would have preferred to have sent the invitations! to different places,” said Mr Harrison. The Australians had offered two seats each to Austria, Yugoslavia, and

Bulgaria but no replies had come from any of these countries. The New Zealand series will be opened on July 18 probably by Sir Henry Wigley and will end with a prize-giving function at the Methven Golf Club on July 27. After this the overseas racers will be guests of the Mount Hutt Tours Company which will take them to Queenstown, where the festival week will soon be underway. New Zealanders will have j their last chance to qualify i for the series when the first I circuit event of the season, j the Air New Zealand Alpine iCup, is raced on July 15 and T 6 at Mount HutL

The only other race be- ■ tween now and then is this week-end’s Mount Hutt : Early Bird event which will ; generally feature younger ■ racers. More than 40 men i and eight women will race i in the parallel slalom tomor- > row. The New Zealand repre- : sentatives, Fiona Johnson . and Anna Archibald, will not ■be competing but entries i have been received from • leading racers such as Julia Allison, Margot Smith, Rike Wedding, Mark Vryenhoek i (all Canterbury), and Nigel • Brown (Queenstown). : It was raining at the , venue yesterday morning but : it was still hoped to hold 1 the junior giant slalom today.