Adaptive Alpine Shines in NZ Winter Games
| 04 September 2009
QUEENSTOWN, NEW ZEALAND – The U.S. Adaptive Alpine Ski Team had a strong presence in the 2009 New Zealand Winter Games at Coronet Peak on Friday as all competing members stood tall on the podium for their respective disciplines, despite the troubling weather conditions.
Head Coach Ray Watkins is ready for Vancouver and pleased with the New Zealand results.
"We expect our athletes to be on the podium when they race and everyone from our team was." Watkins said. "They had tough weather conditions to overcome, but they did."
Standouts in New Zealand included Alana Nichols (Winter Park, CO), Caitie Sarubbi (Brooklyn, NY), and Carl Burnett (Winter Park, CO).
Nichols topped the field with gold in the women's sitting slalom and GS. Nichols was a convincing eleven seconds faster than second place, taking the sitting GS title. The win secured Nichols a spot on the World Cup circuit in the technical events.
"I was really happy with the GS win in New Zealand because that actually put me in a position to ski the World Cup circuit in tech. I wasn't actually qualified to ski tech in the World Cup until that race, so big win for me there," Nichols said.
Sarubbi raced to the finish for silver in both the women's visually impaired slalom and GS. Jessica Gallagher of Australia and Great Britain's Kelly Gallagher edged her out for the gold. Sarubbi is pleased with the results and has high hopes for a medal in Vancouver.
"I got to race against two para-athletes I haven't raced before. It was also good to see more of the competition that's out there," said Sarubbi. "I know that since it is a Paralympic year it's time to kind of buckle down and really give it all I have."
In the men's sitting GS Burnett took a close bronze behind Germany's Martin Braxenthaler and Thomas Nolte.
"It was encouraging that I was only a little bit off the time of Martin Braxenthaler, the top guy out there right now from Germany. He's sort of the one to beat so I was happy I was close to his time and also that I had the second fastest second run," Burnett said.
The team will be heading to Colorado Springs, CO for a conditioning camp in preparation for the upcoming World Cup season and the Paralympics in March.
"We're gearing up and are excited for the Paralympics; we have a lot of promising athletes," states Watkins.
