Good performance by Stuart Blakely

Press, 16 February 1980, Page 60

Good performance by Stuart Blakely

NZPA Washington New Zealand’s firs?; competitor in the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, Stuart Blakely, of Christchurch, put up a creditable performance to finish thirty-second in the men’s downhill yesterday, said the team manager, Mr Richard Johnson. “To finish 10 seconds behind the winner in this competition is a good result by New Zealand standards,” Mr Johnson said. “Blakely was a late addition to the team,” said Mr lohnson, “and by his performance he definitely warranted that selection.” Blakely clocked Imin 55.41 s for the 850-me-fre vertical descent, which was won by Leonhard Stock, of Austria, in 1:45.50. Stock, who was only the reserve for the downhill squad when he arrived in Lake Placid, streaked down the 3009-metre Whiteface

Mountain run averaging over 100 km an hour. The silver medal also went to Austria through Petor Wirnsberger, while Steve Podborski became the first Canadian man to win an alpine skiing medal by taking the bronze. Stock only knew he was in the team 24 hours ago, after forcing team officials to reconsider their selection by producing the fastest practice times. Switzerland’s Peter Mueller, one of the pre-race favourites, who finished fourth in 1:46.75, 13 hundredths of a second behind Podborski, was upset by the condition of the course. “What can you do on a track like that?” he asked. The artificial snow lying under the thin na-tural coating which has fallen in the last two days is unforgiving to a skier who fails to get the edges of his skis firmly

into the snow on a bend. The expected challenge from Valeri Tsganov, of the Soviet Union, did not materialise. The 23-year-old office employee from Murmansk had a final time of 1:47.34, which pu-f him in eighth position. The American hope, Peter Patterson, was fifth. Forty-two competitors finished the race, Canada’s Ken Read, one of the favourites, an early' casualty after losing a ski at the fourth gate. Podborski, Patterson and Read all trained in New Zealand last year. The next competitor in the five-member New Zealand team is Anna Archibald, who will tackle the women’s downhill tomorrow. In training, Miss Archibald has been ski-ing seven seconds behind the fastes-t competitor. “If she can keep that up we will be very happy,” Mr Johnson said.