Army was the champion service for the third year running at the ADF Alpine Snowsports Championships at Perisher.
The soldiers’ efforts in snowboarding events were enough to secure the championships for another year.
Captain Matt Wall was champion male snowboarder ahead of Signaller Jayce Hollands, who was also men’s slopestyle winner.
Signaller Hollands said it was a combined effort to get the overall win.
“Our skiers had some strong riders, too. Lieutenant Thomas Davis is a Jindabyne local and raced in Canada before joining the Army team; he did really well,” Signaller Hollands said.
“RAAF and Navy both did really well and we thought it was going to be a close call for champion service.”
Thanks to the likes of Sub-Lieutenant Sabrina Ting, Lieutenants Will Barton and Kate Millward, Navy was dominant in the women’s skiing events.
Team captain Lieutenant Millward took out the slalom and finished on the podium behind Sub-Lieutenant Ting in both the giant slalom and skiercross – a race down a course with jumps and twisting turns.
“We put down some solid results during the week and we’ve done a lot of work to develop the women’s skiers over the past five years,” Lieutenant Millward said.
She said the Navy ski team had depth, with new faces coming through and the likes of Sub-Lieutenant Ting leading by example.
But it wasn’t enough to claim the title when the overall points were tallied.
‘We put down some solid results during the week and we’ve done a lot of work to develop the women’s skiers over the past five years.’
In the snowboarding, Air Force men and women continued their strong run, finishing second overall.
Corporal Jess Barry showed off skills in the air in the slopestyle discipline, finishing third overall behind Army’s Sergeant Ashley Watts and Corporal Nevin Alakus, who owned the terrain park this year.
Corporal Barry was named champion women snowboarder for the third year running and said a recent trip to Europe to compete in the UK interservice championship lifted the quality of competitors at this year’s ADF comp.
Corporal Barry won the boardercross ahead of Flight Lieutenant Loretta Newton-Hoare, who came third.
“The standard of riding in women has gone through the roof; I had to work for it this year,” Corporal Barry said.
She said the women had six of the top 20 fastest times in the bordercross.
The week-long skiing and snowboarding competition, held from August 12-16, followed a single-service training and development week, where the teams were chosen for week two.
Air Force set up camp at Victoria’s Mount Hotham before travelling to the NSW ski fields. Army and Navy had a shorter trip, with both service teams staying at Mount Perisher for training and competition.
Riders were coached by mountain staff before having a go at jumps and hitting top speed.
The services then selected their best skiers and boarders to go head to head in slopestyle, slalom, boardercross and skiercross.