Brad Dutton from New Zealand reports on the the New Zealand Junior Ski Race Team which has recently returned from Australia with their hands still firmly gripped on the Trans Tasman Cup.
Brad wrote; This was the 3rd year in a row that the Kiwis had beaten the Victorians and after 20 years of annual competition on alternating sides of the Tasman Sea, the series is leveled up 10 all.
This year the competition was held in Metung, which is 300km East of Melbourne. It was held in saltwater lakes there. The NZ Team was truly dominant over the weekend winning 6 out of the 8 classes for the weekend and taking a 2nd and a 3rd in the other 2. The end result was NZ winning the cup by 475 points over the Victorians.
There were 4 races each day on the 2 day competition with Under 13’s, Under 16’s and 2 divisions of Under 19’s being contested in both boys and girls. Each country provided a point scorer to ski for the cup competition as well as the Victorians – the home country – providing another team of invitational skiers to ski for themselves as the 3rd skier in each class.
The NZ team consisted of:
- Jaaron Fritz
- Michael Witheford
- Adelaide Cox
- Jess Sinclair
- Marc Skipper
- Georgia Skipper
- Matt Strong
- Columbia Cox
Observers:
- Logan Fritz
- Paul Skipper
- Vaughan Cox
- Tracey Hanks
Team Manager/Coach:
- Brad Dutton.
The New Zealand Team dedicated the victory to Mike Williams who helped introduce the competition and was the team manager until 2 years ago. Mike was estatic to hear the news of the win.
The Trans Tasman Challenge is a great stepping stone for juniors in these 2 countries and provides international competition that the kids all really look forward to and long may it continue.
Many thanks to Dave Bishop and his partner Lou for organizing the weekend as well as all the Victorian drivers for putting up their boats and all the timekeepers, judges and officials. It was a highly memorable and fun weekend and all the kids involved really enjoyed it.
The 21st Trans Tasman will be held in NZ next April on the beautiful Lake Taupo.
