Lake Wanaka, New Zealand – Over 300 of the world’s elite junior snow sports athletes will arrive in Lake Wanaka this week to compete in the inaugural FIS Snowboard & Freestyle Junior World Championships, which will be held Aug. 19-31.nMarking the first time a FIS World Championship has taken place in the Southern Hemisphere and the first time the sports of freeskiing and snowboarding have combined at World Championship level, the event has attracted a high-caliber field that includes many ranked in the top 20 in the world, despite their young age.

Heading the New Zealand team is current world number one, freeskier Jossi Wells of Wanaka. He is joined by Olympic snowboarder, Rebecca Sinclair and 36 other young New Zealand hopefuls anxious to earn valuable experience against an international field on their home turf.

Competition will be tough with athletes such as Fanny Smith of Switzerland, who is ranked fifth in the world for ski cross and the U.S.A.’s Hannah Haupt, also fifth in the world but for freeski halfpipe, confirmed to compete.

The U.S. has sent a 40-strong team of athletes plus support staff, while 33 Canadian athletes have also made the long journey to the southern snow. Other countries represented are: Sweden (4), Switzerland (23), Norway (15), Chile (1), Poland (3), Bulgaria (2), Netherlands (7), Czech Republic (11), Germany (11), Philippines (1), Japan (22), Belgium (6), Andorra (1), Russia (23), Austria (10), Great Britain (4), Slovakia (12), Australia (26), Ukraine (3), Greece (2), Italy (6), Korea (16), Finland (7), Spain (3).

A Parade of Nations through Wanaka town center will launch the championships at 5 p.m. this Friday, followed by a powhiri and official welcome by Dean Gosper of the International Ski Federation (FIS) as well as Championships Patron Juliane Bray.

All the on-snow action in the 2010 FIS Freestyle and Snowboard Junior World Championships will take place from Aug. 21-31 at Cardrona Alpine Resort and Snow Park NZ, Lake Wanaka featuring the following nine disciplines: snowboard slopestyle, snowboard cross, snowboard halfpipe, snowboard parallel slalom and giant slalom, snowboard big air, freeski slopestyle, ski cross and freeski halfpipe.