Decision on ski series delayed

Press, 9 August 1985, Page 32

Decision on ski series delayed

The fate of the F.I.S. skiseries at Mount Hutt, planned for next month, will be decided at a meeting of the organisers next week.

A decision was to have been made last night, but several factors have contributed to its postponement. The series was scrapped last year because of high costs, but promoters have been working hard this year to revive it.

Doubts over the staging of the Mount Hutt event had stemmed from the unwillingness of leading overseas teams to travel to New Zealand after a downhill series in Argentina later this month.

Many, it seems, would rather • home than come to N-r Zealand to compete in ■’he organising committee’s chairman for the Mount Hutt event, Mr Neil Harrison, had heard that snow conditions in South America were not as good as had been expected. “A decision has been

deferred for a week. It’s partly because of the snow situation in South America, and partly because negotiations are still taking place with some teams,” Mr Harrison said.

Top skiers could decide to come to New Zealand for a ski-ing series if the Argentinian event is postponed. Meanwhile, the uncertainty over the Mount Hutt series has meant the shelving of a proposed reciprocal deal with Australia. Australia was to have financed the top New Zealand skier, Markus Hubrich, in the Australian Continental Cup series next week, while the New Zealand Ski Association had hoped to finance the trip of Stephen Lee to Mount Hutt for the second leg of the Continental Cup series. Hubrich and his brother, Mattias, will, however, still be going to the Australian event, although they will be paying their own way at a cost of between $l2OO and $l4OO.