2007 Winter Universiade: AUS Names Team Captain
January 17th, 2007
The prestigious title of Australian Team Captain was awarded to cross country skier Esther Bottomley (University of Canberra) last night at an Australian Team Ceremony in Torino, preceding tonight’s start of the World Winter Universiade in Torino, Italy 17th-27th January 2007. The Australian Team’s official ceremony was generously hosted by the Australian Ambassador to Italy, Peter Woolcock, in Torino. During the ceremony Esther Bottomley’s achievements, which include competing for Australia in the 2006 Winter Olympics and being a strong competitor at the 2005 Winter Universiade were truly recognized. Esther Bottomley will also have the notable honor of being the Australian Team flag bearer at the 23rd World Winter Universiade Opening Ceremony, scheduled for 8.00pm Italian time at the Pala Olimpico. The Ceremony is set to unleash a “magic collage of multimedia extravagance,” as described by the ceremony producer, Corrado Camilla. The Australian Universities Team of 14 athletes and 7 officials competing at the Winter Universiade is supported by the Australian Sports Commission and Grollo Group and are represented in four disciplines; Cross Country Skiing, Alpine Skiing, Snowboarding and Figure Skating. Briony Schofield, the team’s Administration Manager, explained “the building atmosphere as we await the opening ceremony is very exciting. All our athletes have settled into the Village well and have started their preparations for their competitions.” Nicolas Menzies (University of Western Sydney) will gracefully kick off the Australian campaign competing in the men’s individual figure skating event today. Chad Timmerman (Victoria University) and Nick Warren (Swinburne University of Technology) will start their attack on the boarder cross coarse on Tuesday the 23rd of Jan. The Australian Cross Country Skiing contingent start their competition tomorrow and are ready to race hard after they showed promising form recently at the Haywood NorAm (North American) competition, held January 4th-7th at Rossland in Canada, providing these athletes with excellent competition preparation. News of an injury to Alpine Skier, Thomas Lewis-Mathias (Melbourne University) has put a dampener on the positive preparations. Thomas sustained the suspected ACL knee injury completing his last down hill run before meeting the team in Bardonecchia. Thomas was the only Australian competing in the men’s Alpine events, which leaves the three female competitors to charge the slopes.
Esther Bottomley
