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Snowboard events to kick off with slopestyle at Winter Games NZ

Wednesday 19 August 2009, 5:02PM

By EveNZ

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QUEENSTOWN

Snowboarding events at 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games get underway on Sunday 23rd August with gravity defying tricks and awesome jumps at the slopestyle competition.

More than fifty top riders from around the world will drop into a specially built course at The Remarkables, Queenstown. As a forerunner to the main event, French world champion snowscoot rider Nico Pillin will wow the crowds with a special demonstration of his unique ability in this thrilling new sport which is a mix between BMX biking and snowboarding.

A strong field of homegrown talent in the men’s slopestyle includes Uni Snow Games champ Chris Hutchings plus Stef Zeestraten, James Hamilton, Tom Grooten and Nick Hyne from Queenstown who took the Burton New Zealand Open Slopestyle title in 2005.

They face stiff competition from the international scene including TTR World Tour riders Stale Sandbech and Kim-Rune Hansen from Norway plus US stars Nick Walters, Jordan Rehrer and Dylan Bidez.

In the women’s event Wanaka-based trio Abby Lockhart, Charlotte Trundle and Kendall Brown will be up against Americans Danyale Patterson and Indigo Monk, Czech TTR rider Sarka Pancochova, Great Britain’s Claire Frost and a strong team from Norway including Helene Olafsen, currently ranked ninth overall in FIS snowboard events.

Chris Schuster, manager of the slopestyle and big air events at 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games and a competition director for X-Games, said the course would pose a real challenge. “We have a box feature in between two of the jumps to interrupt the normal flow of features seen in many competitions. Riders will need to plan their runs and stay smooth to maintain speed and impress the judges.

“The competition will be intense and great to watch. Winter Games is one of the earliest events of the season and a fantastic opportunity for riders to put themselves in the frame for other big internationals coming up,” he said.

100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games will take place at Coronet Peak, The Remarkables, Cardrona Alpine Resort, Snow Farm, Naseby and Dunedin from 21-30 August 2009 and will feature disciplines of alpine skiing, free skiing, x-country skiing, snowboarding, curling, ice skating and adaptive snow sports as well as the demonstration sports of winter triathlon and natural luge. For further information visit www.wintergamesnz.com.