Plan to follow the piste to gold

Sarah Jarvis took a moment to relax in Queenstown in the middle of a hectic week of four race...
Sarah Jarvis took a moment to relax in Queenstown in the middle of a hectic week of four race days. Photo by Henrietta Kjaer.
Sarah Jarvis is this season's top-performing female New Zealand ski racer.

After winning the overall New Zealand championship in both giant slalom and slalom last week, she took a moment between races to tell the Queenstown Times about her accomplishments and ambitions.

The 24-year-old Hamilton skier is based in Queenstown for the winter season.

She said she hopes also to win the championship title in the Super G category when this competition is held at Mt Hutt skifield in Canterbury this week.

Apart from these champion titles, her main ambition for the season's competitions is to repeat last year's successful claim of the overall "golden bib", which gives the winner of the Australian New Zealand Cup races automatic entry to all the FIS World Cup races in Europe for the next northern hemisphere winter.

"It is the most important help to get access to the European World Cup circuit.

I think I have a fairly good chance of at least winning the bib for some of the individual sections, and maybe reclaim the overall golden bib as well," Miss Jarvis said.

Despite a modest, friendly and easygoing demeanour, the strong young skier is confident about her ability to keep improving.

And a fresh world ranking from FIS (the international skiing federation) indicates she is on the right track.

She has now broken into the international top 300, positioned at No 288 in slalom and No 295 in giant slalom.

"It is going in the right direction. My aim is to be in the top 200 before the end of this season," she said.

In four races in a row last week she was the fastest of the New Zealand women competing.

She put her strong performances partly down to successful training.

She is the only New Zealand woman training with the men's national team, with their coach Nils Coberger, which she said had been beneficial.

"The guys are strong skiers, and it has been inspiring to train under the same coach as them.

At the same time it has also been inspiring to be training alongside some of the world's best international skiers at Coronet Peak," she said.

Her next goal after this season is to get as much race exposure as possible during the world-cup season in the northern hemisphere, where her training base will be in Austria.

The World Championships in Germany in February are expected to be the highlight of the season.

"My goal is to be in the top 30 at the World Championships," she said.

Thrilled to hear the next New Zealand Winter Games will be held next year, she said she would aim for a podium spot at the games, as a perfect practice for her ultimate goal.

"At the next Winter Olympics in 2014, I will be aiming for gold," she said.

 

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