NZ Park & Pipe Athletes Tick Boxes
NZ Park & Pipe Athletes Tick Boxes on their Way to
Olympic Qualifying
Copper Mountain, USA
(17 December 2016) – The Cardrona NZ Park & Pipe
Team has today wrapped up a week of World Cup competition at
Copper Mountain resort in the USA with several athletes
achieving personal best results and ticking off qualifying
criteria for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.
The first
full park and pipe team outing within the Olympic qualifying
period, the week saw 14 Kiwi athletes – some seasoned
campaigners and others making World Cup debuts - competing
in Snowboard and Freeski Halfpipe and Snowboard Big
Air.
Inspired by NZ ski cross racer Jamie Prebble’s
fifth place at the World Cup in Switzerland earlier this
week, the park and pipe contingent pushed hard to achieve
their personal goals.
Three NZ athletes made it through
qualifying rounds and achieved top six results in the
finals. Byron Wells (Wanaka) just missed out on a podium,
finishing fourth in men’s freeski halfpipe with Miguel
Porteous (Christchurch), landing a solid sixth place finish
at his first World Cup final. Janina Kuzma (Wanaka) finished
fifth in the women’s freeski halfpipe finals.
After
nine months off rehabbing a shoulder injury Byron Wells says
he is “really happy to be back on skis and in the
halfpipe.” He took a strategic approach to Thursday’s
qualifying rounds: “my plan was to land a run that was
good enough for finals without putting too much pressure on
myself as it’s been nine months since I did it last. Then
it was time to step it up in finals.”
While just
missing out on a podium finish, Byron says he is “pretty
happy to come away with fourth for the first comp of the
year.”
Miguel Porteous was “really stoked to have
made finals” for the first time at a World Cup. “Today
seemed to be my day, I had a great training session and the
pipe was riding perfectly,” he reported after the
qualifying rounds. “I just tried really hard to keep it
clean and do all my tricks with big amplitude.”
With
his qualifying run locked in: left side double 900, right
side 720, switch 720, right double 900, finishing with a
left 900, Miguel couldn’t wait for finals day. At first,
things did not seem to be going his way with crashes on the
first two of his three runs. However, holding his nerve, and
sticking with the tried and tested combo, Miguel got the
third run down clean and was “really happy to end up in
sixth place.”
Janina also took a strategic approach to
her first competition of the season.
“Qualifying went
well and I stuck to the game plan, putting down a run that
would get me through to finals and focusing on clean
execution of tricks and good solid grabs.
“It’s
exciting to see the whole team doing well,” she
said.
Career best results also came from young up and
coming snowboarders Zoi Sadowski Synnott (Wanaka) and Tiarn
Collins (Queenstown) who competed in the Big Air
event.
Tiarn (17) finished in 17th place in a stacked
field which featured all the big names of the sport,
including World Cup leader Mark McMorris (CAN), spinning
wonder Marcus Kleveland (NOR) and two-time world champion
Roope Tonteri (FIN).
“This is my best result yet in a
Big Air competition and I’m super stoked on how the day
went!” says Tiarn. “I put down my first run clean with a
back double 12 melon then for my second run I decided to do
another back double 12 but with a deeper landing. I stomped
my second run and got a score of 81.66 which was good enough
for 17th but not quite finals (top 10). I’m excited to
compete again and even more motivated to do better at the
next comp!”
If fifteen-year old Zoi Sadowski Synnott
found her first World Cup Big Air event “nerve
wracking”, her performance certainly didn’t give her
away. Lining up beside such sporting legends as the USA’s
Jamie Anderson – one of the most medalled athletes in the
history of the sport – the Kiwi teenager was “over the
moon” to finish in ninth place. “I was just so hyped to
get a double wildcat down on my first run and then clean it
up with a longer grab on my second run. It was also so cool
to have so many New Zealanders there representing and
supporting.”
Also competing in Copper Mountain
were:
• Finn Bilous – 19th Freeski
Halfpipe
• Rakai Tait – 19th Snowboard
Halfpipe
• Corrah Phillips – 19th Snowboard
Big Air
• Nico Porteous – 22nd Freeski
Halfpipe
• Britt Hawes – 22nd Freeski
Halfpipe
• Freeman Andrews – 34th Snowboard
Halfpipe
• Ryan Murphy – 35th Freeski
Halfpipe
• Ben Harrington – 36th Freeski
Halfpipe
• Carlos Garcia Knight – 39th
Snowboard Big Air
In terms of qualifying for the 2018
Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, Korea, athletes will in
turn need to meet qualification, nomination and selection
criteria set by the International Ski Federation (FIS), Snow
Sports NZ, and finally the New Zealand Olympic
Committee.
FIS eligibility criteria for Snowboard and
Freeski Halfpipe and Snowboard Big Air requires an athlete
to achieve one top 30 World Cup result and 50 FIS points in
the qualifying period.
Full results from Copper Mountain
World Cups are available here:
Snowboard: http://data.fis-ski.com/snowboard/results.html
Freeski:
http://data.fis-ski.com/freestyle-skiing/results.html
Ends