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A father-of-three and well-respected stock agent has died after falling and hitting his head while curling at an ice rink.
Victor Schikker, 67, died in hospital yesterday after the fall at Staveley Ice & Curling Rink in Mid Canterbury on Friday.
His family said it was a tragic accident during an event that Schikker, who worked with PGG Wrightson for 49 years, had organised.
Schikker was airlifted in critical condition after falling backwards and hitting his head on the ice, it is understood.
Robert Schikker and his brother, Victor Schikker (right).
A Hato Hone St John spokesperson said they sent an ambulance and a helicopter to the ice-skating rink shortly before 4pm.
Police said the death would be referred to the coroner.
A spokesman for the Staveley Hall Society, which manages the ice rink, declined to comment out of respect for the person’s family. He said the tragedy happened during a private curling function.
The Staveley Ice & Curling Rink in Mid Canterbury. Photo / NZME
It is the second death at an ice-skating rink in Canterbury in two weeks.
Her family said she had suffered an unsurvivable head injury.
Victor Schikker died after he suffered a fall while curling at a Canterbury ice-rink.
Two days later, a family member announced Kymani had died in hospital.
Kymani’s parents, Curtis Gwatkin and Maraea Hetaraka, said their “baby” should not have had to die for something to change and that she should have been wearing a helmet.
Nicholson, who earned a fourth place in a skating event at the 1992 Winter Olympics, was skating at Lower Manorburn Dam when he moved 3m from the thick ice markers and fell through the ice.
“I went in instantly, over my head in water and cries unheard,” Nicholson said in a post on social media.
Nicholson told the Herald he realised he’d made a “big mistake”.