600 school skiers at Whakapapa

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 11, Issue 504, 21 September 1993, Page 3 (Supplement)

600 school skiers at Whakapapa

Fine weather and good planning saw the first day of competition of the New Zealand Secondary School Ski Championships finished in record time, with some fast times recorded. Winners of last year's competition, Kings College, finished in first place at the end of Day 1, with last year's runnersup, St Paul Collegiate, in seond position.

More than 600 young ski racers, their coaches, managers, officials and supporters converged on Whakapapa's Te Heu Heu Valley yesterday for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Ski Championships. The invitation event has 122 teams competing, mostly from the North Island along with four Nelson area teams.

From the first day's race times, skiers are paired off against similartimed competitors, and on the second day they race a dual slalom. So a team that is consistent and wins their dual slalom races can take the top prize. The fastest skiers receive individual prizes as well. Provisional results for Day 1: Kings College, 80

points, lst; St Paul's Collegiate, 79 pts, 2nd; St Cuthbert's College and West Lake Boys High School, 67 pts, 3rd=; Auckland Grammar, Kristin School, Samuel Marsden Collegiate and Wanganui Collegiate, 65 pts, 5th=; Nelson College for Girls and Sacred Heart College, 64 pts, 9th=; Palmerston North Boys High School and Ruapehu College, 64 pts, 1 lth=.

Top Ruapehu College skier Todd Haywood, fell on his first run and was disqualified. Day 2: Dual Slalom. Racers with compatible times from Day 1 are pitted against one another. Competitors earn four points for a win, two points for a loss and nil for a no-start. Results will be published in next week's edition of the Bulletin.