Sydney Uni Sport & Fitness’ AUS Coordinator, Tristan Liles recounts the efforts of Sydney Uni athletes across the first three days of the AUC Snowsports event.
DAY ONE:
Monday started off early for all our competitors with a
7am start! The first event was the alpine giant slalom for both the skiers and
boarders. It was a stacked field with Olympians in both the men’s and women’s
draws. Sydney Uni’s top two women finished 5th and 7th which were very respectable
results. In the men’s event we had a cluster of really good times posted, which
is great for our overall points. Our positions of 9,11,15,16,18,26 and 38 out
of a field of 46 were very impressive.
Unfortunately our Victorian foes, Melbourne Uni,
dominated the event with the Australian skier Anton Grimus taking out top spot.
In the snowboard giant slalom we had very mixed results.
In the women’ competition, our top spot was 23 out of 40. We only have two female boarders
down here and they are doing a great job putting the effort in for their University. Our
men’s boarding team had slightly better results with our top three coming in at
8,11 and 13 out of 35.
The next event of the day was the moguls. Our own Eliza
Graham and Nicole Wilson finished 1 & 2 in the women’s draw which is a
fantastic result. Add to that a 7th and 20th and Sydney Uni are the women’s moguls
champions on points and placings!
Our men did just as well. Josh Himbury finished a tight
2nd with the third place getter a mere .03 points behind! We also had a
5,6,14,20 and 25 out of 31 which again made us the champions of the moguls on
points.
DAY TWO:
Tuesday morning saw the athletes take on the giant slalom
course and Sydney Uni once again posting some consistant places. In the women’s draw
we had Nicole Wilson come in 4th with Kristy Pikkat 6th and Emma Milson 8th. A
top effort for the team points tally.
In the men’s draw our top place went to Josh Knuckey in
9th spot with three other Sydney Uni men coming in at 12,13 and 14. Our men’s team is
made up of majority free-riders who don’t do a lot of downhill racing, however
they have put in a sterling effort in all the downhill events.
Our focus is now on the slope-style event on Thursday that
we will hopefully win gold in both skiing and boarding disciplines.
Boarder-cross and skier-cross were on Tueaday afternoon in what
were extremely foggy conditions. Again not an event we were expecting huge
results in but we still managed some respectable places. In the men’s
boarder-cross we had one quarter finalist with two others knocked out in the
prior round. In the men’s skier-cross we had two Sydney Uni quarter finalists and
three bow out in the prior round. Women’s skier-cross had slightly better
results with Emma Milson reaching the semi finals and two others reaching the
quarter finals.
DAY THREE:
We woke up on Wednesday to 50km winds and pelting rain,
which caused the postponing of the slalom event. It eventually kicked off and
our own Nicole Wilson was in the medals again with a solid second place.
The men again did well with solid placings putting us in
great contention for the teams trophy.
