Wanaka snowboarder Mack James (15) won the junior open
slopestyle competition at Snow Park, this week. Photo by
Camilla Stoddart.
Snow Park NZ's Junior Open has given young Southern Lakes
ski and snow enthusiasts an early look at one of the venues for
next month's world junior championships.
Snow Park wrapped up two days of competition this week with
the event billed as a lead-in competition for the region's
grommets to strut their stuff ahead of the world junior
snowboarding and freestyle championships.
Promising snowboarders completed their competition runs on
the final day of the event, with Mack James (15), of Wanaka,
taking overall honours on the custom-built slopestyle course.
James' score of 8.37 from a possible 10 enabled him to claim
first in the boys junior division (14yrs +), while JJ Hayward
(13), also of Wanaka, won the boys youth division (10-13yrs).
Auckland snowboarder Bree Hyde (14) celebrated a school
holiday trip to the south with a first in the girls junior
division and Lucy Hayes (13) and Zoi Synnott (9), both from
Wanaka, triumphed in the youth and grommet divisions
respectively.
The junior open's snowboarding competition also marked the
opening of Snow Park's "Hatchet" slopestyle run, which will
now be open to all visitors to the Pisa Range resort.
A freeskiing component to Snow Park's Junior Open was held on
Tuesday, with Beau-James Wells and Adie Lawrence, both of
Wanaka, winning the top age-group prizes.
The world junior championships take place at Wanaka skifields
from August 19 until August 31.
About 200 junior snowsports athletes had already signed up to
compete at the event, organisers said.
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