New World Cup course at Cardrona Alpine Resort

New World Cup course at Cardrona Alpine Resort

LAKE WANAKA, New Zealand (13 September) – The world’s best snowboard and skier cross athletes are taking advantage of a new purpose-built World Cup course during an elite training camp at Cardrona Alpine Resort.

With the Winter Olympics qualifying period for ski and snowboard cross kicking off in December the camp has attracted the current world champion Alex Pullin (AUS), Olympic gold medallist Seth Wescott (USA) as well as national teams and representatives from USA, Russia, Norway, Australia and Slovenia, all looking for valuable training time.

The 14-day training camp is key for all the athletes ahead of the first World Cup in Austria this December. The course culminates with the FIS Snowboard Cross and Skier Cross (ANC) Continental Cup being staged next week, 17-20 September, at Cardrona.

Winter Games CEO, Arthur Klap is thrilled to be supporting the development of World Cup standard courses and arenas for the region. “It has been extremely exciting to have such a high calibre of international athletes training in the Wanaka and Queenstown area this winter season. The popularity of this camp certainly suggests we have achieved our goal of providing a quality snowboard cross course in the Southern Hemisphere with athletes looking to get training in ahead of next year’s Winter Games and the Olympics six months later,” said Klap.

A joint initiative between Winter Games NZ and Cardrona Alpine Resort, the course was purpose built and shaped by Anders Forsell (SWE) for the training camp and as the course for next year’s Snowboard Cross World Cup event which will feature on the Winter Games NZ schedule.

Forsell has designed and built snow parks around the world. He has completed multiple commissions for FIS World Cup arenas and is now involved with the Sochi 2014 Olympic courses.
The training camp commenced on the 4 September and will continue through to the end of this week.
Winter Games NZ 2013 will run over 14 days from 12-25 August. The programme will include FIS World Cup events in Snowboard Slopestyle, Snowboard Cross, Freestyle Ski Halfpipe, Freestyle Ski Slopestyle, as well as Snowboard Halfpipe. Three Super Continental Cups and seven Continental Cups will also feature in the competition.

For further information, visit www.wintergamesnz.com

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