Two days at the New Zealand Winter Games

The inaugural 100% Pure Winter Games came to a close last weekend amid wintry weather at Coronet Peak. The closing ceremony marked the end of an exciting 10 days of competition, including ice skating, curling, skiing and of course snowboarding. A mini Winter Olympics of sorts, attracting some of the most elite international athletes.

This new event will be held every two years in the Southern Otago Region of New Zealand, using some of the areas best resorts and facilities. Every 4 years the Winter Games will act as a direct lead up to the Winter Olympics - as it is this year. With over 800 athletes, 40 countries and 37 events, it seems its the start of things to come in the Southern Hemisphere where world class Winter sports events have been few and far between.

I made it to the The Remarkables, just out of Queenstown for the second day of competition to watch the Slopestyle event. The sun was shining and the course was in top shape. With an international line up of riders - and a strong kiwi bias - qualifications kicked off. Although I was mostly paying attention to what the women were doing, it was hard to ignore the men, who were bringing it to the spectating crowd.

Kiwi’s Stef Zeestraten and Nick Hyne came first and second respectively, with third place going to Norwegian Gjermund Braaten.

Although the women were not as technical as the men, US X-Games gold medallist Jamie Anderson was pushing the field. Despite watching fellow competitors Stefi Luxton and Britte Van de Pouw take heavy falls, kiwi rider Shelly Gotlieb pulled out all the stops to ensure she was not outdone by the tourists. She took out first place in the women´s event with an overall score of 46.90 out of a possible 50. Shelley, recently came third in the 2009 US Burton Open but thinks her local win was more special due to it being at home.

“It was awesome to get gold in my home country, it´s an awesome feeling. We all had a really great day and all the kiwi´s killed it,” said Shelly. Second place went to 09 Burton NZ Open winner Jamie Anderson and third place to Aimee Fuller of Great Britain.

Check out my ‘expertly’ edited video footage of the event, which I took with my super technical point and shoot camera!!!

100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games from Leslie Clark on Vimeo.

My second day at the games was well worth the drive, I was not originally going to make the halfpipe, but the weather turned and we made it back to Cardrona to watch the finals. On my first outing as Accredited Media I experienced what it was like to be in the ‘industry’ so to speak if only for a day. I arrived at Cardrona bright and early - well not really but earlier than any other day. My media pass had already paid off, we got priority parking right at the top of the car park. I made my way to the media room where I picked up a FREE lift pass and rider listings for the days competition as well as the all important media bib. This really was the golden ticket as it allowed access to all areas.

While I was collecting all my odds and ends news came through to the office that due to the high winds the semi finals were cancelled and all competitors would automatically qualify for finals. The plan was to wait till the finals scheduled time and hope that the weather might calm down a little. The waiting began,we headed to the cafe and it seemed  that was where all the riders were waiting and watching the weather.  Midday ticked around and we were on the move. At this point it was not looking good, the wind was so strong, and it was a struggle to stand up straight. The riders started to drop into the pipe for some warm up runs but that didn’t last long a few minutes later the riders were cascading down the middle of the pipe and making a beeline for the cafe once again. News filtered through that they were postponing for another hour in the hope that it would clear up. More waiting. It got me thinking about how much the riders have to do this. It all seems really exciting, traveling the world and snowboarding for a living, but I couldn’t help noticing how fed up and frankly over it many of the competitors seemed as the day progressed. Couple that with dragging board bags around and sitting in airports there is a downside to their lifestyle - ok a small one but a downside nonetheless!

Time to grab some lunch and wait on news of the weather. I headed back up to the office to find out what was happening and they had postponed a decision for yet another half hour. They were really desperate to keep the event on track but I could see the concern on the event staff faces as they were gearing up to cancel the event for the day. It seemed the weather gods were listening to the panic, the wind appeared to be dropping and the sky was clearing from grey to blue. Lets go..

In a flurry of activity, the heavy hitters made an appearance. Shaun White, Danny Davis, Gretchen Bleiler, Kelly Clark, Jamie Anderson et al...eager to get going collected their pro model boards, which had been casually left on the ground outside and made their way to the pipe for the third time that day.

I positioned myself on the edge of the pipe where I thought I might get some decent shots. It was all very much a learning experience from here. To begin with you have to be pretty aggressive to get the spot you want and make sure you don’t let Mr. My Photos Are More Important Than Yours, get in the way. The next challenge was trying to be in the right place at the right time. Every rider attacks the pipe differently and it really is the luck of the draw as to who you capture perfectly, especially with my not so professional SLR.

The top 18 women went first in reverse order, and it seemed many of them were struggling with the challenging conditions. Kelly Clark fell on her first run with others stumbling through theirs. However, 17 year old Liu Jiayu from China made short work of the conditions and pulled off a run filled with amplitude and solid tricks including front-7 to cab-7 combo which helped score her a 44.1 almost 9 points clear of the rest of the field after the first run. Her high score carried her through and she nabbed the gold medal spot. After a fall on her first run, Kelly Clark turned things around and managed to score a 40.5 not enough to get her the gold but placed he solidly in second with Gretchen Bleiler nailing a solid run to place her in bronze position.

 
The men had no intentions of letting the women steal the show, and they were pushing the boundries despite the conditions. In a star packed field featuring the likes of Mason Aguirre, Danny Davis, Antti Autti and of course the indomitable Shaun White. It was clear that progression was the word of the day. White however was the only one to consistently land the biggest new trick in halfpipe, a double-cork cab 1080 - which was unsuccessfully attempted by fellow Americans Danny Davis and Scotty Lago, and Aussie Nathan Johnstone. This coupled with his trademark style, and ridiculous amplitude was enough to grab him gold.

Shaun White took victory with his first score of 47.1 with silver went to Iouri Podladtchikov from Switzerland with Japanese rider Kazuhiro Kokubo in third. Although the competition was all sewn up, White said,“I knew I’d already won so it was fun to have a victory lap and I let out two of my best tricks – a cab 1080 double cork and a frontside double. What a wild event! I didn’t think we were going to ride today – the wind was unreal.

I feel great. I honestly think I rode better today than I did in the Burton NZ Open. I feel like I nailed it, not only in the scoring but also by sticking my tricks. It’s one thing to do a double cork but another to perform it in competition. I was smiling and singing a song on my runs. I have some new tricks in store but I don’t think I’ll be revealing them right now!”.

I headed down to the medal ceremony and jostled for a spot to watch the victors receive their medals and the winning anthems play. White not content with entertaining the crowd in the pipe, showed us his finest air guitar skills during the anthem. My media day was over and I had to hand in my golden ticket. It was a really interesting experience and I hope that I can do it again soon. I also look forward to returning in the future to see how the games have developed. The organisers did a great job in their first year and I was really happy to have been a part of it if only for a couple of events.

Women's Podium

Men's Podium

See below for a slideshow of some photos from the day

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.