The Vodafone Snowboard Nations Junior World Championships opens in Wanaka tomorrow (Monday) evening with a parade of participating nations.

The Championships are set to give a timely boost to Wanaka and Queenstown as the economic impact is estimated at just under one million NZ dollars. Around 200 international snowboarders and team members from fifteen countries will be staying in the region for an average of 12 days.

The teams will be greeted at the skateboard park by local iwi and challenged by Mt Aspiring College pupils with a haka.

Teams confirmed as entries are Australia, Austria, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, New Zealand, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, USA, Yugoslavia, Belgium and Canada.

The event starts on Tuesday with the Junior Otago Polytechnic Snowboardercross and the CBS Wanaka Parallel Giant Slalom at Cardrona Alpine Resort.

Interest in the television coverage has been received from Europe, North America, Japan and Australia.

The Queenstown Winter marketing Group is supporting the Championships with a grant of $10,000. Other local businesses and organisations supporting event are Good Sports, the Otago Polytechnic, Cardrona Alpine Resort, AJ Hackett Bungy, the Community Trust of Otago and Infinity Investment Group.

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