College skiing event heats up

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 455, 29 September 1992, Page 12

College skiing event heats up

Ruapehu College hosted their 13 th Annual College ski competitions at Whakapapa last week - an event that has grown into the biggest ski competition hosted by a single school in the southern hemisphere. The competition between 120 schools ran smoothly and was deemed a success with Ruapehu College coming fourth equal. With excellent racing conditions, rivalry was keen amongst the more accomplished racers. The Ruapehu College team of Craig

Buckingham, Nathan Swain, Carl Triggell, Darren Triggell and Rachel Hays performed extremely well and are a testimony to the youthful skiing talent this area possesses, said a College team supporter. Final school' s placings were: 1st Kings College (Auckland), 2nd St Pauls Collegiate (Hamilton), 3rd Westlake Boys High School (Auckland), 4th equal Woodford House (Havelock North) and Ruapehu College (Ohakune). Individual prizes went to: Fastest

junior man - Callum Burt (St Pauls Collegiate), fastest junior lady - Bridget Reaney (Woodford House), fastest senior man - Richard Caudwell (St Pauls Collegiate), fastest senior lady - Angela Huppert (Marsden School). Final placings for other schools in the Central North Island were: Wanganui High School 38 equal, Taihape College 52 equal, Taumarunui High School 66 equal, Wanganui Girls College 71 equal, Wanganui Boys College

83 equal and Tongariro High School 88 equal. Ruapehu College coordinator John Laurenson said special thanks must go to the staff and management of Whakapapa Skifields for their total co-operation in the organisation of the event. Thanks also went to the major sponsor, Salomon, for the supply of prizes, One Stop Ski Shop at Owhango for two sets of K2 skis and Look Bindings for the fastest senior man and lady racers and to Coca-Cola. With three Australian schools expressing an

interest in participating in these races, 1993 could see this event becoming an intemational competition. Protests Chief-of-Course Rick Knight said the race's rules now need to be redefined, following protests over school team composition and slipping of courses by competitors. Parents of team members from one school threatened a court injunction to stop the event's prize-giving going ahead, after a dispute over team composition.

Co-educational schools must have at least one member of each sex and there was dispute over whether one school was in fact 'co-ed'. The threatened injunction did not proceed, but did highlight the intensity of competition. RAL marketing man-

ager Scott Lee said it was a shame that what should be a fun event for school pupils should draw such controversy. "They should keep lawyers and courts right out of this event," he said. "Leave them to the America's Cup".