Multiclass National Champions Crowned at Australian Interschools Championships

National champions were crowned across a number of disciplines at the 2022 SUBARU Australian Interschools Championships at Perisher Resort today, including Alpine, Ski Cross, Snowboard Cross, Slopestyle, Snowboard GS and Moguls.

Australian champions were also crowned in the Multiclass and Special Olympics events, with #Beijing2022 Paralympians Pat Jensen and Josh Hanlon on hand to award the medals.

Dual Paralympian Jensen said seeing kids as young as 10 take to the Front Valley course was great to see, and he hopes having the Multiclass events in Nationals gives greater exposure to the snow sport opportunities for athletes with a physical or intellectual disability.

“I definitely do wish I had started out in my sport younger,” Jensen said.

“Coming from Newcastle and not having a skiing background, I didn’t really know anything about Alpine racing, but I think if I knew opportunities like this were there, I would have started earlier,” he said.

“Events like this really help kids who don’t know about winter para-disciplines to get into the snow world.”

The fastest time down the course for the day belonged to 13-year-old Preeya-Rose Ahluwalia from ET Australia Secondary College.

Ahluwalia has been skiing since she was 18-months old, and competing in Interschools since she was in year 3, however only recently discovered the Multiclass event.

After finishing 52nd in the Girls Division 2 Alpine at the NSW / ACT / QLD State Interschools Championships, she was invited to compete in the Multiclass event, which she went on to win at the state level before claiming the title at the national event.

“I flew down the mountain!” Ahluwalia said of her victory on the slopes today.

“I love Interschools because it gives everyone a chance to ski against each other and have a fun competition, it’s really fun overall.” 

For the the Boys Multiclass 2 Snowboard GS national Interschools winner, Jarvis Smoker, he said he tried a bunch of different sports growing up, but snowboard GS was one of the only sports that had a category for his specific disability.

“I got into snowboarding in 2020 because snowboarding is the only sport that actually recognises my disability [16p 11.2 deletion syndrome],” Smoker said. 

“Competing at Interschools has been really interesting, I wish I had the extra year from last year but it’s been really good and really inclusive for anyone that has a disability.”

The 14-year-old from St Ignatius College Riverview is dreaming of following in his heroes’ footsteps, Ben Tudhope.

“My goal is to advance into more mainstream competitions like the Paralympics,” Smoker said.

Beijing 2022 Paralympian Josh Hanlon said he encourages all kids with a disability to find the perfect winter sport for them.

“I would encourage kids to come to any come and try days, and to check out Disability Wintersports Australia - they’ll sort you out and make it as easy as they can for you to have a go and get involved.”

See all results from the Multiclass event HERE.

See all Interschools results and live timing via the SnowRacer app.