For Great Britain's freestyle skiers the FIS World Cup Halfpipe kicks off the NZ Winter Games in Cardrona on Friday (16th August) with the finals taking place on Saturday 17th August. GB Sochi 2014 hopeful Murray Buchan (21, Edinburgh) will lead the charge with Peter Speight (20, Sheffield) and Rowan Cheshire (17, Stoke) – GB's one female entrant in halfpipe - hoping to come into form.
On Sunday 18th and Monday 19th of August six GB snowboarders will compete in the FIS World Cup Snowboard Slopestyle competition, also part of the NZ Winter Games. Triple X Games gold medallist Jenny Jones (33, Bristol) will be hoping to capitalise on her experience as well as inspiring exciting new talent Aimee Fuller (22, Belfast) and 15 year old Katie Ormerod from Brighouse, West Yorkshire. For the men, Sochi medal hopeful Billy Morgan (24, Southampton) will lead the charge alongside Nate Kern (27, Breckenridge, USA) and Sam Turnbull (22, Darlington).
In the FIS Snowboard Halfpipe, qualification takes place on Thursday 22nd August with the finals running on Saturday 24th August. Olympian Ben Kilner (24, Banchory) and the accomplished Dom Harington (29, London) will try and mix it up with the world's best in the pipe as both eye spots at next year's Olympic Games.
Woodsy in his usual environment... picture courtesy of British Ski and Snowboard
One of GB's best chances of medaling in the NZ Winter Games will come in the form of overall World Cup champion James 'Woodsy' Woods (21, Sheffield) who will compete in the FIS World Cup Ski Slopestyle event in Cardrona from Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th August, the final competition of the NZ Winter Games. Reinforcing the strength of freeski in Great Britain at the moment, there will be four other GB representatives in the form of Paddy Graham (25, Sheffield), Tyler Harding (16, Halifax), Zhach Pham (20, Hamden, USA) and Anna Vincenti (17, Edinburgh).
In Alpine Skiing it has been a good summer for female racers Alex Tilley (19, Aberdeenshire) and Charlie Guest (19, Balbeggie) with podium finishes earlier in the season and a fourth place in the Ladies GS at Coronet Peak this week for Guest. Both will compete in the Australia-New Zealand Cup in Coronet Peak, New Zealand which takes place from Sunday 18th to Friday 23rd August. As well as Tilley and Guest, Sochi 2014 hopeful Dave Ryding will be competing in Slalom, and Jack Gower will be competing in GS.
Later in the month in Cardrona the NZ Freeski Open will take place from 28th-31st August with halfpipe and slopestyle competitions. Then in September the Burton High 5's, involving both Snowboard Slopestyle and Halfpipe, takes place from 10th-13th September in Cardrona.
For full profiles of all British Ski and Snowboard athletes visit www.teambss.org.uk or the Ski Club of Great Britain website www.skiclub.co.uk.
For more information on the NZ Winter Games visit www.wintergamesnz.com and for all FIS results visit www.fis-ski.com