Four from Four Gold Medals for NZ Paralympian Adam Hall

Para Alpine Skiing events wrapped up today at Cardrona Alpine Resort with the Southern Hemisphere Cup Slalom and NZ Paralympian Adam Hall (Wanaka) claiming his fourth straight win of the QRC Winter Games NZ, fuelled by Forsyth Barr. Corey Peters (New Plymouth) won gold in men’s sitting with up and coming NZ Para Alpine sit skier Aaron Ewen (Tuakau) earning silver. Gemma Fletcher (Auckland) claimed a bronze medal in women’s sitting.

Heavy fog delayed the race start until late morning but once the sun finally made its appearance racing was all go on the Slalom course set on the Goldrush run.

Adam laid down a blistering first run to set himself up for the win.

"First run was good I liked the course set," he explained between runs. "There were a few gates that stacked up which meant you had to have some good technical skiing, and it was a bit challenging which was good."

On the second run the two-time Paralympic Slalom gold medallist maintained his form and once again recorded the fastest time, earning him the win.

Adam has won all four of the World Para Alpine Skiing Southern Hemisphere Cups included on the Winter Games NZ 2019 schedule, beginning with two Super-G races held at Coronet Peak last week.

"It's good to be here racing as part of Winter Games," said Adam. "It's really good to see some of our own Kiwi development athletes out there shredding and it's great to have the Chinese and Korean athletes here working on their development as these guys try and get points and qualify coming into the next Paralympic cycle."

Xinjun Chen (CHN) finished second and Li Biao (CHN) third in men's standing.

Corey said he was pleased with the result particularly given that Slalom is not his preferred discipline. "My slalom is coming along this season, I'm really happy with the progress I'm making. Slalom hasn't really been my thing but it's something I'm starting to bring back in to my skillset. I'm pretty stoked to put down two pretty decent runs."

NZ's Aaron Ewen was delighted to make it on to the podium in second place after his fourth place finish in GS yesterday. China's Xiang Li finished third.

Hwang Mingyu (KOR) was the only competitor in the men's visually impaired category, also deservedly taking his place on the top step of the podium.

It was a small field of just two athletes in the women's standing category with Zhang Mengqiu (CHN) backing up her win in yesterday's Giant Slalom and her team mate Wang Qingyun CHN) finishing in second.

The women's sitting category also saw Liu Sitong (CHN) in the gold medal spot, adding to her gold in the Giant Slalom. Zhang Wenjing (CHN) finished second with NZ's Gemma Fletcher adding a bronze medal to her collection.

The complete Winter Games NZ schedule can be viewed at https://www.wintergamesnz.kiwi/sports/

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