Queenstown freeskier's first WC podium

Ruby Andrews with her coach Hamish McDougall and teammates Ben Barclay and Luca Harrington

Ruby Star Andrews has claimed the first World Cup podium of her career at the FIS Freeski Slopestyle World Cup held in California.

The Queenstown 18-year-old said: "It’s pretty unbelievable, I wasn’t even expecting to make it into the finals here at Mammoth, so to make the podium is just incredible."

Windy conditions put the athletes grit to the test, with the wind swirling on the course making speed for the jumps challenging.

"Today was really hard with the weather. The wind was really affecting us, but we made it happen so that was awesome," Andrews said after the weekend event.

She dropped into her first run and laced together a technical rail section with both direction 270s and a back swap on the huge rainbow rail. Heading into the four jumps, she showed the judges plenty of variety, spinning in all four directions.

Andrews was rewarded with a 70.80 for her first run, a score that put her into third place after run one. That score held up throughout run two and Andrew’s landed herself on her first World Cup podium at just her second World Cup event of her career.

"I was super stoked with my rails; rails are just as important as jumps. Rails have been a focus of my training and it’s awesome to see my training pay off," she said.

Johanne Killi of Norway took the top spot, marking her sixth World Cup win. Kirsty Muir of Great Britain claimed the second World Cup podium of her career, finishing in second place.

Teammates Ben Barclay (Auckland, 21) and Luca Harrington (Wānaka, 18) were also competing in the finals. Barclay put down a solid run in the heavily stacked field, finishing in 12th place. Harrington finished in 14th place.

 

  Women’s Freeski Slopestyle World Cup Podium [L-R] Kirsty Muir 2nd (GBR), Johanne Killi 1st (NOR), Ruby Star Andrews 3rd (NZL)