The New Zealand World Winter Games Squad has returned home to well deserved heroes welcomes, following a very successful campaign in Italy.
After arriving in Turin on March 4th, the team enjoyed three days of acclimatisation and preparation on the slopes Sestriere, a ski village approximately 100 km from Turin which would also host the Alpine Skiing competition once the Games got underway.Â
The team then headed back to Turin for Saturday night’s Opening Ceremony, which took place at the Inalpi Arena in front of a crowd of 5,000 people and a worldwide audience on ESPN.
Sunday and Monday were training days before competition officially got underway on Tuesday with Giant Slalom divisioning for the Alpine Skiing team, while over in Bardonecchia, where the Snowboarding was hosted, divisioning and finals both took place on the same day.
Cosmo Adams was the sole Kiwi snowboarder to compete in Italy, after his teammate Jarrod Gilbert was unfortunately forced to withdraw from competition due to injury, and he got the Kiwis off to a flying start with a Silver Medal winning performance in his Giant Slalom division.
Things got even better for North Harbour’s Adams in the Slalom competition the following day as he raced down the finals course in 3:02.510, fast enough to claim gold by less than two seconds from the Netherlands’ Jurre Van der Weit.
The Alpine Skiing team also claimed their first medal of the Games on the Wednesday, finals day for the Giant Slalom in Sestriere, as Lower Hutt’s Rebecca Heath completed the final course in 2:44.680 to claim Silver in her division.
The Alpine Skiing team then had a day to recuperate and relax on Thursday before turning their attention to the Slalom competition, which got underway with divisioning on Friday.Â
The results from divisioning saw several Kiwis competition against one another in the Finals round on Saturday with James Oliver, Joseph Fitzpatrick-Bryant and Marc Enderle all drawn in the same division of the Advanced Slalom while Mitchell Hartnett-Newlands and Grant McKenzie both found themselves in the same division of the Intermediate competition.
The medals came thick and fast for the New Zealand team on Saturday too. James Oliver and Mitchell Hartnett-Newlands both recorded the fastest times in the respective divisions, winning New Zealand’s second and third Gold medals of the games. Oliver shared the podium with Joseph Fitzpatrick-Bryant, who claimed bronze in the same division while Tim Clayton also raced his way onto the podium with a silver medal winning performance in his division of the Advanced competition.
World Winter Games Medallists
Gold
Cosmo Adams – Snowboard Intermediate Slalom
James Oliver – Alpine Skiing Advanced Slalom
Mitchell Hartnett-Newlands – Alpine Skiing Intermediate Slalom
Silver
Cosmo Adams – Snowboard Intermediate Giant Slalom
Tim Clayton – Alpine Skiing Advanced Slalom
Rebecca Heath – Alpine Skiing Intermediate Giant Slalom
Bronze
Joseph Fitzpatrick-Bryant – Alpine Skiing Advanced Slalom
