Elyse Timoshenko (Australia) races down Coronet Peak in the
Winter Games New Zealand women's giant slalom in August.
Photo from Getty Images.
Coronet Peak's three-year contract as designated host of
the New Zealand National Alpine Championships has finished, and
the country's premier ski-racing event may be primed to go
elsewhere.
Ski Racing New Zealand (SRNZ) is seeking expressions of
interest from skifields around the country for a three-year
contract to host the next three National Alpine Championships
until 2012.
SRNZ alpine director James Lazor said hosting rights for the
national championships had been opened to allow other
skifields to apply for the event.
Coronet Peak's contract had finished, other skifields had
expressed interest in hosting the nationals, and SRNZ was
obliged to review the situation, he said.
Coronet Peak ski area manager Hamish McCrostie said the
Queenstown skifield would "absolutely" want to secure the
hosting rights again.
Coronet Peak's recently lapsed contract was the first time a
New Zealand skifield had tendered for a three-year host term
for the nationals, he said.
Previously, the event had been allocated on an annual,
rotational basis to fields around the country, Mr McCrostie
said.
"We'll be putting our best foot forward to SRNZ. Ski racing
is what we do here at Coronet Peak," he said.
The skifield is used as a training base by members of the New
Zealand Alpine Ski Team and Mr McCrostie said he saw no
reason that arrangement would be compromised if SRNZ decided
to hold the national championships elsewhere.
Coronet Peak had a "quality" reputation for holding "world
class" events and he hoped that counted when considerations
were being made, Mr McCrostie said.
Skifields have until November 15 to advise SRNZ of their
interest.
Applicants would then be sent a formal "request for proposal"
asking for event host details, Mr Lazor said.
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