Keen interest in ski rivalry

Press, 11 September 1986, Page 42

Keen interest in ski rivalry

Snow conditions on Coronet Peak are good for the Bolle national ski-ing championships which begin today with men’s and women’s gaint slaloms. Queenstown has had a couple of days of frosts and the course on “Donkey Serenade,” finishing near the bottom of the triple chairlift, is reported to be very hard and in excellent condition. Sixty-three men and 25 women have entered the championships and major interest will centre on the rivalry between the highly regarded ski-racers, Marcus Hubrich (Wellington) and Simon Wi Rutene (Rotorua). Hubrich has been national men’s champion for the last five years and has collected 11 individual titles in the process, but Wi Rutene has been in dashing form this season, winning the Coronet Cup and then the giant slalomslalom double in the Air New Zealand F.I.S. inter-

national series at Mount Hutt. Within the last 10 days Wi Rutene was involved in a bad car accident, which left him shaken but with injuries no more serious than a slightly stiff back. Apart from Marcus Hubrich and Wi Rutene the skiers expected to do best in the men’s giant slalom include Mathias Hubrich (Wellington) the Canterbury skiers, Graeme Goodwin, Nils Coberger and Stefan Crawford, and Nick Boyer of Queenstown. Kate Rattray of Canterbury is a hot favourite to retain her national women’s title from such racers as Queenstown’s Jane Blair, and Juliet Satterthwaite, Bergendy Cooke and Juliet Johnston all of Canterbury. Today’s giant slalom will be followed by men’s and women’s slaloms tomorrow which double as F.I.S. and national championship races.