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Posted on Thursday September 2nd at 11:35 a.m.
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The Venue - Craigieburn's Middle basin Chutes, Photo: Neil Kerr
‘The quality of the athletes is the strongest we have hosted in the 12 years of running the CHILL Series. We have a growing number of talented young kiwi male skiers coming through the ranks. Combine this great interest from European and North American athletes, and this year's Series was set to be tightly fought. In the female ski division overseas entries have been strong with all the skiers skiing completely new and unknown terrain', says event director Stu Waddel.
Athletes are judged on the choice of line they ski through steep and challenging terrain; combined with control, fluidity and aggressiveness throughout their run, the judges are looking for an overall impression.
Local kiwi skier Cam McDermid qualified top on day one and set the standard high for day two. Austrian National, Sophie Mitteregger in her first big mountain event qualified top in the female ski division. While in the snowboard division talented kiwi rider Scott Heale qualified top male and Finnish rider Malin Lindroos qualified top female.
On the second day, the field was culled to 35 athletes, all completing two runs and the best one counting toward the final results.
‘We had fresh snow after a weather day, blue skies and a moderate wind on the ridge tops, all combining for a fantastic day in the mountains.
The chutes were opened for one inspection run, and by the end of the day, with three runs through the same terrain over two days of competitions, the standard of skiing and riding had lifted markedly.' commented Stu Waddel
As anticipated there was a tight field of 10 male ski athletes who were fighting for the top spots. Romain Bellon came first with a solid last run, redemption from returning after competing in 2008 with a broken ski which had taken him out of the competition. Local kiwi skier Alex Lynden, fresh off winning the NZ Free Ski Open was the highest kiwi, placing 4th.
2nd Ferdinard Winter AUT
3rd Fabian Lentsch AUT
4th Alex Lynden NZL
5th Orry Grant CAN
6th Sam Lee NZL
In the female ski divsion, French National Sarah Martinais took top honours with a solid last run.
2nd Birgit Ertl AUT
3rd Sophia Mitteregger AUT
4th Julie Scott-Hansen NOR
In the male snowboard division kiwi rider Scott Heale held onto first place after a confident first run.
2nd Ruari Mcfarlane NZL
3rd Seb Zink AUT
4th Johannes Scharl AUT
In the female snowboard division kiwi rider Hayley Flintoff took the honours with an impressive first run.
2nd Malin Lindroos FIN
Moving onto Mt Olympus for the final two days, organisers had hoped for clear weather, but with southerly's forecast and snow falling, the results from the Craigieburn stood as the final results and further qualification toward competing in the World Freeride Tour.
TV 3 news footage from the event is available here.