A former Dunedin scarfie won the men's giant slalom at Coronet Peak yesterday, with the Winter Games event attracting one of the strongest alpine ski racing fields seen in New Zealand.
Warner Nickerson (30), of the United States, who in 2003 spent a semester studying at the University of Otago, put his knowledge of the region's mountains to good use, holding on to his first-run lead to beat a very tight field.
Competition was close, with only 3 seconds separating the top and bottom athletes, and a tiny 0.61sec between the fastest and slowest top-10 competitors.
"It was definitely a challenge today," Nickerson said after his second run, grinning ear to ear as his result (1min 46.20sec) provisionally placed him first.
"The snow didn't hold up super well so you just had to keep on fighting the whole way down, and I did that, and here I am, lucky enough to be here."
His win was no mean feat considering the standard of the 102-athlete field, which he described to be "similar to a Europa Cup field", and the softening snow conditions, which saw many athletes struggle on their second run.
In second place, and making a strong comeback, was 20-year-old Austrian Marcel Mathis (1min 46.29sec), who was sitting in 22nd place after a mistake in his first run.
Thriving in the softer conditions, he returned with the quickest time of the second round, to push American Colby Granstrom back to third by 0.55sec after their combined run times.
Despite Queenstown local and Olympian Tim Cafe failing to make it past the first round, New Zealanders Ben Griffin (Ohakune) and Adam Barwood (Queenstown) both made their presence felt among the internationals.
Griffin excelled in the first run with a time of 51.03sec, which placed him 12th going into the second round, but he could not capitalise during run two, struggling with the softer conditions to finish up in 24th place.
"I wasn't very happy with it. I skied very clean in the first round but I wasn't very quick and then this round I tried to give it a bit more, but I struggled.
"It was quite a tough run. It was really a lot of work but it's the same for everyone, so you've just got to go out and do what you can."
Barwood also succeeded in making it through to the second round, jumping three spots to place 39th overall - an excellent result for the promising 18 year-old.
Cafe was philosophical about his early exit, treating it as "training" for his preferred Super G event at Mt Hutt on Saturday, with Griffin and Barwood also set to return for the slalom and Super G events later in the week.
