Ski-ing rout

Press, 8 February 1985, Page 30

Ski-ing rout

NZPA-ReuterSanta Caterina, Italy ■> A little-known teenager, Diann Roffe, shot to instant fame and led a United States rout of the favoured Swiss by winning the women’s giant slalom title at the world alpine ski championships yesterday. Roffe, aged 17, had never finished better than ninth in a world cup race, but she leaped from fifth place, after the first leg, to win the gold medal with a devastating second run. Her team-mate, Eva Twardokens, led the first run but dropped to third and took the bronze medal while a third American, the Olympic champion Debbie Armstrong, was fourth. Elisabeth Kirchler, of Austria, prevented a total United States monopoly of

the medals by taking the silver. 9 Both New Zealand men competing in the combined events — Marcus Hubrich (Wellington) and Simon Wi Rutene (Rotorua) — have been placed in the top 20. After racing in the slalom and the downhill which made up the combined, Hubrich was seventeenth over all and Wi Rutene was nineteenth. The other member of the New Zealand men’s team, Mattias Hubrich, has been unable to take part. He had to have a toenail removed after suffering from frostbite. Weather conditions have been bad for the New Zealand skiers training and racing in Europe. Temperatures have been terribly cold and there has either been too much snow or not enough snow.