Winter Games: Wanaka base for successful pair

New Zealand adaptive snow sports athletes Carl Murphy (left) and Adam Hall have been living and...
New Zealand adaptive snow sports athletes Carl Murphy (left) and Adam Hall have been living and training in Wanaka. Photo by Catherine Pattison.
Wanaka has been both home and training ground for two of New Zealand's most successful adaptive snow sports athletes, Carl Murphy and Adam Hall.

While Winter Paralympic gold medallist Hall bases himself in Winter Park, Colorado, over the New Zealand summer, he will be home racing in the Winter Games next week and has been preparing alongside the Cardrona alpine ski team.

He will leave again in November to compete on the world cup circuit, building up to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Hall (25) will race in the back-to-back IPC alpine skiing world cup slaloms at Coronet Peak, on Thursday and Friday.

Organisers are expecting large fields of up to 80 athletes for each IPC world cup. Competitors from all classifications - visually impaired, sit-skiers and standing-skiers with arm and leg impairments - will take part in each race.

Hall will then head to Mt Hutt for super G and super combined world cup events on August 26-27, organised by Snow Sports New Zealand in conjunction with the Winter Games.

Snow Sports NZ adaptive snow sports manager Jane Stevens said Hall was ''looking really good in training'' and he was expected to put everything into these world cups.

''He has an amazing work ethic and has definitely upped his game to compete in both slalom and super combined. With strong performances here he'll have a great chance to double medal at Sochi.''

Murphy (34), who is ranked world No 1 in para-snowboard cross, has to sit out the Winter Games after his world cup races were cancelled when the Snow Park ruled out hosting events back in June.

Murphy, a below-the-knee amputee on his right leg, was disappointed at that decision but had been concentrating on his training and was looking forward to a two-week camp in September up at Cardrona Alpine Resort.

He will be joining the Australian able-bodied Olympic team when it builds a ''full-size'' boarder/skier cross course there.

''That will be a huge block of training for me,'' Murphy said.

 

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