Matt Sweet, Year 12 at St Paul’s Collegiate School, pulled some stunning moves that secured him fourth place at the New Zealand Junior National Freeski competition, even though his two strongest categories were cancelled due to high winds.
The young skier was up against some of the New Zealand development team in the Olympic half-pipe event but still managed place third.
In the big mountain/free rise event Sweet was up against two juniors who rank in the top ten in the world, Craig Murray and Hank Bilous. Sweet’s epic performance in this event landed his third place next to Murray (first) and Bilous (second). He also secured fifth and sixth spit in the slopestyle and open slopestyle respectively.
The young skier was pleased with his results and saw this as a redemption from his performance at the New Zealand Junior Freeride Tour Series earlier in the season. The competition included three events from across the country and is sanctioned for qualifying for the Junior World Tour. Sweet unfortunately crashed twice in this competition, but still managed to place fifth overall.
