Snowsports: Huge effort to make luge a success

Volunteers went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure the Winter Games was a success - even making a two-and-a-half hour round trip to truck in mountain snow for the Naseby luge track.

"That just shows how dedicated our volunteers are," New Zealand Olympic Luge Association president Geoff Balme said yesterday at the conclusion of the natural luge event, a demonstration sport on the closing day of the Games.

Mild weather for the past three weeks had the luge organisers worried, as snow and ice melted quickly on the outside track.

To resurface the track, a team of volunteers carted four truck-and-trailerloads of snow from Mt Buster on the Mt Ida range behind Naseby on Friday and another two on Saturday.

Then the snow was shovelled on the track and raked to prepare the surface for the final two days of competition at the weekend - the Naseby Cup on Saturday and games demonstration event yesterday.

"It was a real stretch to keep the surface OK for so long, especially with these sunny days, but we managed it," Mr Balme said.

The association hoped the natural luge would form part of the next Winter Games as an event attracting international competition, rather than just as a demonstration event.

Twenty junior competitors lined up for the Games event yesterday - 13 junior men and seven junior women from throughout New Zealand, all aged under 21.

They each had two runs on the track, with the scores combined to decide the fastest competitors.

Dunedin athlete Michael McCormack (13) won the junior men's competition, with his fastest time 31.77 seconds, while Andrew Balme (20), of Christchurch, was second and Tyler Carson-Day (15), of Timaru, was third.

Michael has been luging for two years and spends as much time as he can in Naseby, fitting the sport around rugby, squash and athletics.

Ranfurly 12-year-old Tyla Toheriri-O'Neill won the junior women's championship, with her fastest run 32.52 seconds, followed by Cheyan Vowles, of Ranfurly, and Tyla Jorgensen, of Wedderburn.

Tyla was pleased with her fastest time and said she was "just concentrating on trying not to crash".

She left the prizegiving ceremony early to play hockey in Cromwell as a member of the Central Otago representative side.

Mr Balme said the televised coverage of the event was a good showcase for the track and the Maniototo district.

Nearly 1000 people had used the 360m, 10-curve luge track this season and the growing number of junior competitors boded well for the future of the sport.

The International Luge Federation was keen to foster the sport in this country and it was hoped that natural luge would be included in the Winter Olympics.

The earliest it could be added was 2018, he said.

Canadian national luge team member Greg Jones (22), who has been coaching at Naseby this season, said he was impressed at the skills demonstrated by the junior competitors, who were new to the sport.