Peters off to a winning start
Taranaki para-skier Corey Peters has started the season off as he finished it by claim a three-second Super-G win at Winter Park, Colorado.
With the first World Cup of the season less than a week away, Peters brushed off a fourth place finish in the slalom event to take out the speed discipline in convincing fashion. Peters struggled in the heavy snow in the slalom, but wasn’t held back in the Super-G.
‘‘It’s a nice way to finish off a solid training block here in Winter Park,’’ he said.
Winter Park resort in Colorado was the Northern Hemisphere training base for the Cardrona New Zealad Para-Alpine Ski Team.
Heavy snowfalls led to the cancellation of the Giant Slalom which was scheduled to run earlier in the programme and a second SuperG race was cancelled after the Race Organising Committee decided conditions were not safe enough to continue racing.
Wanaka’s Adam Hall also secured victory in the Super-G discipline, as well as claiming gold in the slalom.
‘‘We have had some pretty challenging conditions since our slalom race a couple of days ago with almost 60 cm of fresh snow falling,’’ Hall said. ‘‘I am really happy with another win in some pretty tough and soft conditions.’’
Newcomers to the sport Aaron Ewen, of Auckland, and Samuel Tate, of Dunedin, were also training at the resort and put together strong performances in their Super-G races. Ewen finished fourth in the sitting class and Tate placed 10th in the standing class.
Peters and Hall will now travel to Innerkrems in Austria to compete in World Cup races from 11-15 January. Qualifying for the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games is now underway and both athletes will be looking to secure early season points.