News

Press Release September 3 2017

Lake Wanaka, New Zealand (3 September 2017) – The world’s best snowboarders had their work cut out for them on the slopestyle course at Cardrona Alpine Resort this afternoon. With the 56 riders split across two heats, pressure was on to make the top eight cut and earn a spot in the World Cup finals. Darcy Sharpe of Canada and Chris Corning of the USA were the top qualifiers of their respective heats.

Warm sunny conditions had the snow softening and the course running slow, with several of the top ranked riders coming unstuck on their first of two runs.

Chris Corning smashed his top scoring run right out of the gate, scoring a 90.75 on his first run. His run was well executed top to bottom from rails to the jumps with high level of trick difficulty and good variety.

“It’s super sugary out there and it was good just being able to put a run down, said Corning. “It wasn’t exactly what I wanted but it was good enough to get a score of a 90.00.”

Darcy Sharpe took a fall on his first run but was able to make an impressive comeback, landing a very technical, near flawless run on his second go.

After struggling on his first run, NZ’s Carlos Garcia Knight was also able to adapt his run to the conditions and put down the second highest scoring run in heat one. The judges rewarded the Kiwi for his technical rail tricks and all round clean run.

“I’m just happy to put down a run,” said Garcia Knight. “I stepped it down a little bit just because conditions were pretty tough today but I guess it worked in the end. I had a pretty strong top section and so that carried me through.”

The Snowboard Slopestyle World Cup finals will be held at Cardrona Alpine Resort tomorrow (Monday) with 16 men and 10 women in action.

The Audi quattro Winter Games NZ snowboard events are jointly sanctioned by the International Ski Federation (FIS) and the World Snowboard Tour (WST). They provide a valuable opportunity for snowboarders from around the world to earn qualifying points for the Olympic Winter Games which will take place in PyeongChang, South Korea in February 2018.

Top qualifier heat one

Chris Corning

Bridge: boardslide to front board

Hip: Front 360, melon

Hardway backside 270

Polejam back rodeo

Jump 1: Cab 900, mute grab

Jump 2: Frontside 1080, melon

Jump 3: Back double 1080, melon

 

Top qualifier heat two

Darcy Sharpe

Rainbow rail: backside 270 lipslide

Frontside alley oop

Hardway 270/ 270 out

Cab 270/ 450 out

Jump 1: Switch back 9, tail grab

Jump 2: Backside 720 mute

Jump 3: Frontside 10, indy grab