Sport

New Zealand’s Paralympians are on the snow in Beijing again today looking to add to the tally of gold, silver and bronze they have already won.

Sit skiers Corey Peters (New Plymouth) and Wānaka’s Aaron Ewen will compete in the Giant Slalom event.

Giant Slalom consists of two runs on different courses on the same day and times from both runs are added to determine the order.

In the past two Paralympic Winter Games, Peters has won silver and finished 10th in this discipline.

Peters is already a Beijing gold medal winner – at his third games he completed the medal set by winning the Men’s downhill.

Wānaka duo Aaron Ewen finished 11th and Adam Hall 19th in the same event.

Hall won bronze on the third day of the Paralympics in the Men’s Super Combined Standing category where Ewen, at is first games, recorded a did not finish.

The stars have aligned for Peters after a difficult build up to the games. Having already won gold, he added another silver today in his second event of Beijing 2022.

Peters came second in the Men’s Super-G Sitting less than half a second behind the winner Jesper Pedersen of Norway. Peters hit speeds of a fraction under 100kp/h.

Aaron finished a creditable ninth in the event.

PHOTO: OIS/Joel Marklund Adam Hall competes in the Men’s Super Combined Slalom Standing Para Alpine Skiing.

Hail Di Ceasare! Koford Cup is ours

Marco Di Ceasare – fun to say and fun to watch as he completed a team-wide performance and altered the course of Luggate Albion Senior’s run chase to claim the competition’s ultimate prize, the Koford Cup.

Queenstown won the toss and elected to bat first, taking on the small Luggate boundaries early, cracking 32 off the first 9 balls, a risky approach that also cost two wickets.

Our bowling attack was up for the challenge with Marco’s tight lines and figures of 3/35 combined with the experienced Matt Anderson netting 2/42, along with Tim Cotter, Jonathan Sunderland, Will Anderson and Anuj Rana picking up key wickets, they had the visitors all out for 170 in the 33rd over.

Young Josh Shackleton had an outstanding game behind the stumps, taking two catches and capturing a sharp leg-side stumping and Blayne Wegener’s difficult catch to dismiss the dangerous Rajan Mehta being key moments.

The run-chase was a rollercoaster affair with our batsmen struggling to get on top of Queenstown, losing four quick wickets mid-innings around the resolute opener Jono Homer continuing his good form crafting 66 off 84 balls. Steadying the ship, Will Anderson patiently held his nerve as he and Marco faced the task of needing 49 off 36 balls with three wickets remaining.

With confidence, this pair combined guile and power (18 struck by Marco in the 38th over and Will’s ramp-shot for 6 with 7 balls remaining) to leave 10 required off the final over. Needing just four balls, Will (20 off 40) and Marco (33 off 16) provided an epic finish to the Senior’s season – a championship winning one.

The Senior Reserves travelled to Poolburn to face Black’s Hill Reserve XI in their Partridge Cup clash. With the home-side putting on 150 for their first wicket, our guys performed well to peg them back to post 224/6, Jake Nicol’s impressive figures of 3/26 being key. In reply, Ben Simmer’s stylish 50 stood alone as the top scorer as regular wickets fell to have us all out for 150 with 9 overs remaining.

The junior club, outside of intra-club hit-outs, 6 a-sides and other fun formats saw our ‘Youth’ take on the Queenstown Colts. In a rather one-sided affair our boys took heavy toll on the bowling attack with Tom Sides (32), Matt Botting (50) and Jackson Clark (51) making the bulk of the 198/5 total – Matt’s seven 6’s and Jackson’s seven 4’s made powerful statements. Running through the opposition, where extras of 26 topped runs off the bat lead to impressive bowling figures – JR Rowley (2 for 5) and George Allwood (2/8) helping cap off another successful Friday for Andy Simmer’s team.

Cup winners, back, from left, Anuj Rana, Tim Cotter, Blayne Wegener, Jono Homer, Matt Anderson, Jonathan Sunderland and front, Josh Shackleton, Mika Lawrence, Marco Di Ceasare, Will Anderson, Gerard Bonny.

– By Duncan Spear

Girls’ football gets a boost

Wānaka AFC is launching a new year round football programme which will see girls as young as five given the opportunity to play against other girls.

The club is taking advantage of a huge growth in women’s football around the world and the fact the sport is investing more at grass roots level.

The club wants to getting more girls and women playing football and are offering a variety of opportunities to the community this year, club spokesperson Jessica Zeestraten (Struthers) said.

New Zealand is ranked 22nd in the world of women’s football.

“We want to offer an option for girls to play in close proximity with their mates to encourage a sense of belonging and a space where they can develop their skills together,” former Wānaka player and parent Zeestraten

Starting in Term 1 girls football with be available through the “Soccer Sisters” for pre-season training. There will be a holiday programme in Term 2 and Term 3 will see girls’ futsal, football clinics and 5 aside games.

Wānaka Girls Football pre-season training has started and details are on the club Facebook page.

Juniors in early form

Wānaka Squash Club juniors started this year as they finished off the last, by dominating the first of the junior Head squash series in Dunedin last Sunday.

Players won three of the four divisions. Kyan Prince won the Boys’ B division, Cormac Smith won the mixed A and Jack Wyeth won the Mixed B.

Kyan met Rui Fukaya in the final, Kyan was one game up when Rui slipped, crashed into the back wall and knocked himself out and was unable to play on. Also in that division Ethan Prince placed third and Matthew Botting sixth.

Other Wānaka competitors were Oisin Corbett, who was beaten in the final of the boys’ A division, and Harriet Sargood-Ross who finished sixth in the Mixed A. In his first tournament, Vincent Gerrard won two of his three matches to place third in the Mixed B.

The next Head squash tournament will be on home turf in Wānaka on April 10.

Where our juniors will look to continue their dominance of this event. Biathlete Campbell Wright, who tested positive for Covid last week, is set to return to competition in Europe.

The Sun revealed last week that the Olympic athlete has contracted the virus, and that explained some disappointing times in the IBU Junior Championships at Soldier Hollow, in the United States.

“The test results arrived on the last day but he had been symptomatic from the day before racing started. It explains the odd ski speed results that seemed so out of character,” his spokesperson John Burridge told the Sun.

“His coaches have headed back to Italy and his father and younger brother have also travelled with them.”

After completing quarantine Wright has headed to Europe and will compete at an IBU Cup event, the level below IBU World Cup, at Val Rihanna in the Italian Dolomite region. He has a 10Km Sprint race on Saturday New Zealand time.

He will race in the IBU Cup at 2am Saturday morning NZ time and the Eurovision coverage will be live on the Biathlon World website - www.biathlonworld.com.

“Click on calendar, click on IBU World Cup and then choose the IBU Cup option. Once you are in the IBU Cup select the 10km Sprint and then go to top of screen and select live TV,” Burridge said.

“For those shuddering at getting up at 2am you can watch a replay Saturday morning by just selecting "watch live" when first in the website and scroll down to the video of Campbell's race.

He and his family and coaches will then head for Holmenkollen In Norway for the final IBU World Cup of the season.

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Wright back in action

Campbell Wright