By
Michael Weaver
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Flight
Lieutenant Jason Dean experiences the dizzy heights of snowboarding
during the Air Force Alpine Snowsports Championships at
Mt Hotham in Victoria. Photo by FLTLT Darren Smith
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SNOWBOARDERS
have flown the flag for Air Force at the 2003 Manugistics National
Alpine Interservice Snowsports Championships at Mt Buller.
Air Force may have relinquished its five-year tag to Navy as the
champion service at the titles held from August 10-15, however
the tight-knit team of Air Force snowboarders sliced up Army and
Navy to win the ADF snowboarding championship.
Air Force team manager and competitor Warrant Officer Robert Hawke
said some great individual efforts paved the way despite the 19-member
team having many of its better skiers unavailable.
“You could say we had our most unseasoned team to date,”
WOFF Hawke said.
“We had a good mix of old stagers and young guns with nothing
much in between, but the promising aspect is that there is some
great talent coming through.”
Squadron Leader Thurston Williams ably led the snowboarders, with
equally impressive performances coming from Leading Aircraftman
Tim Seager and Flight Lieutenant Stuart Macrae.
WOFF Hawke held the mantle as the top Air Force skier at the championships,
with Flight Lieutenant Wayne Edwards raising eyebrows in his initial
call-up to the second week of competition, following the Air Force
championships at Mt Hotham. See
seperate story on this page
Other skiers to impress were Flight Lieutenants David Smyth, Davin
Johnson and Michael Pearson, plus the Air Force’s sole female
representative, Squadron Leader Anne O’Leary.
However, the Air Force skiers were narrowly beaten into fourth
place behind the Navy, Army men and Army women.
The interservice skiing and snowboarding championships were determined
from the top four placegetters in each of the disciplines, which
included slalom, giant slalom and long giant slalom (a modified
form of the giant slalom).
Follow
this link for full results
