Winter Olympics: Kiwis' European runs take them to Vancouver

Ben Griffin (left) and Tim Cafe have been honing their alpine skills on European slopes this northern winter. Photo / Dean Purcell

The first batch of New Zealand's Winter Olympians has been named and there are high hopes of top 10 performances in Vancouver next month.

New Zealand's Olympic selectors - Barry Maister, Simon Wickham, Mike Stanley and Rosemarie Nye - have announced 10 athletes across five disciplines, nine of whom will be competing in their first Games.

The exception is Rotorua skeleton racer Ben Sandford, who finished 10th four years ago in Turin and rates a good chance of another top-class result.

Still to come are the snowboarding contingent, sure to number at least four and, with a strong chance of getting a third women's quota spot, perhaps five.

Also confirmation is pending on young biathlete Sarah Murphy, whose hopes are dependent on New Zealand picking up a quota allocation.

New Zealand are in the 28-35 bracket for a place in the field. The first 27 places have been allocated and accepted. So it's fingernail-chewing time for the Canadian-Kiwi, who was competing in an event in Italy overnight.

"We have said if she gets offered a place that she's met our criteria and will go," Maister said yesterday.

Both alpine skiers, Ben Griffin and Tim Cafe, who have been training and racing in Europe for several months, are in, with young free skier Mitchey Greig, who will contest the skier cross discipline, in which athletes race down a course in groups rather than individually. Cross country pair Ben Koons and Katie Calder were always strong chances, while there was a slight surprise in the skeleton team getting a second athlete, Edinburgh-based Iain Roberts, in the men's event.

Sandford and women's nominee, Tionette Stoddard, have long been racing within the top 20 on the World Cup circuit, but Roberts came home with a big run over the last few weeks to enhance his chances.

"His recent results have demonstrated a significant improvement," Maister said.

"He was in the discretionary area, but he's a very good prospect for the future, very much part of the dynamics of that team, and his trending was very much in the right direction."

Two skaters will go - former world in-line champion Shane Dobbin in the 5km, and Blake Skjellerup for the short track.

The snowboarding squad will be confirmed about Wednesday and there is a measure of intrigue around the final composition of that group.

As things stand, Mt Maunganui's Mitchell Brown needs a big performance in his final World Cup event in Quebec tomorrow to jump ahead of his rival, Ben Stewart, for the No2 men's spot.

"We are waiting for Snow Sports New Zealand to confirm their [snowboarding] order, and they are waiting for the final results," Maister added.

He added that New Zealand will take up the fifth snowboarding slot if it is offered.

New Zealand's athletes will go straight into one of two Olympic villages in Vancouver and Whistler, 125km north of Vancouver.

There will be no pre-Games camp, which Maister said was simply not practicable given that the various disciplines had distinctly different needs in terms of preparation.

They will have a function on February 11, the day before the Games begin, which will include the traditional flag-raising ceremony.

New Zealand have had five top 10 finishes at Winter Games, led by Annelise Coberger's slalom silver at Albertville, France, 18 years ago.

OFF TO CANADA

Alpine skiing: Ben Griffin (23, Ohakune) and Tim Cafe (22, Queenstown)
Biathlon: Sarah Murphy (21, Wanaka) (confirmed pending quota spot allocation)
Cross country: Ben Koons (23, Maine, US), Kate Calder (29, Tauranga)
Free skiing: Mitchey Greig (21, Queenstown)
Skating: Shane Dobbin (30, Canterbury), Blake Skjellerup (24, Canterbury)
Skeleton: Ben Sandford (30, Rotorua), Tionette Stoddard (35, Dunedin), Iain Roberts (30, Edinburgh-based)
Snowboarding - team still to be confirmed

* Winter Olympics are in Vancouver from February 12-28