Skiers and Snowboarders Warm Up
Skiers and Snowboarders Warm Up for Audi quattro Winter Games NZ with first Halfpipe Competition of the NZ Season.
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release
Lake Wanaka, New Zealand (15
August 2017) – Blue skies and a freshly cut
superpipe provided a perfect day for skiers and snowboarders
competing in the Australia New Zealand Cup (ANC) at Cardrona
Alpine Resort, near Wanaka today. The International Ski
Federation (FIS) sanctioned event served as a good warm up
for the Audi quattro Winter Games NZ which get underway in
10 days’ time.
Competitors each had two qualifying runs to impress the judges with the top six female and top 10 male skiers and snowboarders earning spots in the afternoon’s finals. Competitors were judged on the technical difficulty, progression and execution of their tricks as well as the amplitude achieved above the lip of the 22-foot-high halfpipe.
Australian Emily Arthur was the standout qualifier in the women’s snowboard field, showcasing a frontside nose grab as her signature trick. Second in qualifying, NZ’s Dakota Craig delivered one of her best-ever competition runs and the judges rewarded her for spinning all directions and demonstrating a good variety of tricks.
Germany’s Sabrina Cakmakli qualified topped
of women’s ski, dropping into the pipe with a switch air
and achieving good amplitude throughout her run.
New
Zealand’s Porteous brothers dominated the men’s ski
field and battled hard for the top qualifying spot. Miguel
threw down the first doubles of the day, showing some of the
class that saw him finish on the X Games podium earlier in
the year. However, younger brother Nico’s combination of
technical tricks - including a switch combo on his two final
hits - and clean execution, saw him earn the highest
qualifying score.
Men’s snowboard qualifying saw another close battle with less than a point separating Japanese riders Naito Ando and Ikumi Imai, both riders landing technical tricks and achieving impressive amplitude.
Consistency was the name of the game in finals,
with the top male and female qualifiers from each discipline
once again earning the top scores.
“There’s no better
way to start competition season,” said women’s ski
winner Sabrina Cakmali.
Britain’s Zoe Atkin, fourth in qualifying, stepped up her amplitude and trick execution to leapfrog into second place in finals. Yu-Jin Jang (KOR) finished third.
In women’s snowboard Dakoka Craig held her qualifying form to finish second behind Emily Arthur with USA’s Kayleigh Carew in third.
“It’s been a fun competition, my goal was to land both runs so I’m pretty happy to have done that, and put down two good runs,” said Arthur.
Japanese competitors dominated the men’s snowboard podium. No stranger to the Cardrona halfpipe and winner of the 2016 Cardrona Games, Naito Ando held off the charge from Ryo Aono (2nd) and Ikko Anai (3rd). Ando nailed his finals run with a 900 and a 1080, some of the highest spins of the day, landed with effortless style.
The battle of the Porteous brothers never eventuated in men’s ski finals with Miguel pushing hard on his first hit, landing too deep and crashing out on both runs.
While “not really focusing on results and using today as a good warm up for Winter Games” Nico’s highly technical first run was easily enough for the win. His left 1080 with seatbelt grab into switch right nine tailgrab into switch left 1080 at the bottom of the pipe gave spectators a small taste of what Winter Games NZ World Cup competition might look like.
Spectators were also treated to a good showdown for
second, third and fourth places with all three skiers
delivering multiple off axis spins in both directions and
boosting well out of the pipe. Japan’s Hiroo Wada took out
second place, rewarded for a clean run with pronounced
grabs. Switzerland’s Briguet Robin finished third. Keita
Takahasi just missed out on the podium, finishing
fourth.
Full ski results here: https://data.fis-ski.com/freestyle-skiing/results.html
Full snowboard results here: https://data.fis-ski.com/snowboard/results.html
Competition continues tomorrow (Wednesday) when skiers and snowboarders will take to Cardrona Alpine Resort’s world-class slopestyle course for qualifying rounds ahead of slopestyle finals on Thursday.
Ends