Skiing: Five nearing Games qualification

A small group of New Zealand alpine skiers are on the downhill run to Winter Olympic Games qualification.

The five, Mickey Ross, Mark Bridgwater, Nicola Campbell, Erika McLeod and Sarah Jarvis, left today in a nine-strong New Zealand team to race in North America until Christmas.

They travel to a French base in the new year, hoping they've done enough to get the final New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) stamp in mid-January for the Games at Turin, Italy, starting a month later.

The five Games candidates are all inside the NZOC's discretionary criteria determined in conjunction with Ski Racing New Zealand (SRNZ), which is slightly easier than the international FIS automatic criteria.

New Zealand downhill and Super-G skiers need to be ranked in the world top 350 while the slalom and giant slalom specialists must be inside the top 450.

Ski Racing New Zealand chief executive Sue Bridgwater said the development of a national programme ensured the best young skiers were being given more international exposure.

"The athletes have become more focused and started to appreciate how much more professional they need to be in their outlook in order to qualify," Sue Bridgwater told NZPA.

"This is the first time in several games that we've had this sort of depth of skier on the fringe of qualifying."

If all five can qualify, it will be the biggest New Zealand alpine skiing representation at the Winter Olympics since six at Sarajevo in 1984.

There was just one at Salt Lake City in 2002, where Europe-based slalom skier Claudia Riegler was a meritorious 11th.

New Zealand's only Games medal belongs to Annelise Coberger, who picked up a slalom silver at the 1992 Albertville Games.

Coberger's brother, Nils, is the national men's coach while Frenchman Eric Rolland is in charge of the women.

"We've had this particular group coming through for several years. They have the tenacity to stick at it, all the skills and some quality coaching," Sue Bridgwater said.

"We're hoping most of them will carry through to the next Olympics."

Oamaru's Ross, touted as New Zealand's best ever men's slalom skier, is the oldest of the group at 24, leaving Sue Bridgewater to suggest New Zealand could mount a very strong challenge at the 2010 Games in Whistler, Canada.

She noted that most leading international men's skiers were in their early 30s.

Ross' stocks rose considerably this year when he beat a world-class field to win the FIS Southern Cup slalom at Coronet Peak at Queenstown.

He headed a star-studded field including American ace Bode Miller and the powerful United States men's team who were training there.

After a knee injury took him off the slopes for most of last year, it has been a remarkable return for Ross, whose world slalom ranking has climbed to 166.

"This year they (SRNZ) have got everything together and got a national team set-up so there's a bit of support there," Ross said.

"I had to do it all myself from when I was about 18. There were a few years there when they didn't have any structure, or not enough money really. At that stage there wasn't anywhere to go."

Ross is a virtual selection certainty while Dunedin's Campbell, who has a giant slalom ranking of 258, is well on target.

Aucklander McLeod is ranked 309 in the same discipline while Jarvis, of Hamilton, and Mark Bridgwater, of Christchurch, rank well in several disciplines.

A trio of Queenstown teenagers -- Tim Cafe, Andrew Greig and Michelle Greig -- are outside the Games range but will use the next two months to try to qualify for the world junior championships.

The first competition for the women is at Breckenridge, Colorado starting on November 20 while the men compete there a week later.

A series of Continental Cup races in the United States and Canada follow.

New Zealand team:

Men: James Arnott (Queenstown), Mark Bridgwater (Christchurch), Tim Cafe (Queenstown), Andrew Greig (Queenstown), Mickey Ross (Oamaru).

Women: Nicola Campbell (Dunedin), Michelle Greig (Queenstown), Sarah Jarvis (Hamilton), Erika McLeod (Auckland).

- NZPA