SKI CHAMPIONSHIPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 August 1938, Page 2

SKI CHAMPIONSHIPS

LONG DISTANCE EVENT. WON BY A. SWAN. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) THE HERMITAGE, August 29. The New Zealand ski championships began today at Mt Cook. This is the first time for three years that the championships have been held here and, with a large gathering of some of the Dominion’s most prominent skiers at Ball Hut, some interesting events are promised. Following a week of brilliant sunshine, the weather broke on. Saturday when a north-west wind sprang up and rain started to fall in the evening. There has been rain during all the weekend, with, intermittent showers today. The snow is now very wet and icy in parts. The event decided today was the New Zealand long-distance ski championship, which took place on a course about 10 miles long on the Hochstetter section of the Tasman Glacier. Beginning at the moraine opposite Ball Hut, the course wound through a series of hummocks as far as the Hochstetter Icefall, and then back to the starting point.' Two laps of the course made up the required distance. There were seven competitors, including A. Swan, who finished third in the 1935 championships, Roy Sole, who competed last year in the ski championships in Australia, and T. A. Schweiters, one of the North Island’s leading skiers. The competitors started at halfminute intervals. Swan, the first min away, led the field throughout the race. Sole, starting last, quickly overhauled the rest of the men with the exception of Swan, who was well ahead of them before the race w.as half-finished. D. Mackenzie, a junior skier in his first season of competition in the open class, showed exceptional form to obtain third place. The result was: A Swan (Otago Ski Club), 65min 23 l-ssec, 1; Roy Sole, 66.33 2-5, 2; D. McKenzie (Tasman Ski Club), 73.41, 3.