Four Kiwis qualify for FIS Snowboard Slopestyle World Cup
Mons Roisland (Norway), Cameron Spalding (Canada) and Kokomo Murase (Japan) qualified in the top positions for today's FIS Snowboard Slopestyle World Cup finals.
Wānaka’s local athletes held their own in the hugely competitive field in Saturday's qualification round, to the delight of the home crowd who lined the top of the Cardrona Alpine Resort course.
In the women's competition, Olympic gold medallist and X Games star Zoi Sadowski-Synnott qualified through to the finals. And 15-year-old Te Anau snowboarder Ava Beer, despite not making finals, represented proudly in her first World Cup competition.
In the men’s competition Campbell Melville Ives, Dane Menzies and Rocco Jamieson all qualified through to finals.
The qualification round featured 88 of the best snowboard slopestyle athletes in the world, representing over 25 nations, with Beijing 2022 Olympic Champions, current World Champions and 2024 X Games winners all dropping in.
The Big Bucks course was perfectly manicured, thanks to the hard work of the Cardrona Parks Crew. The course featured three rail sections, with each section offering a variety of line options to allow the athletes to really make their mark and show their creativity. The athletes then made their way through the triple jump line, with the three jumps getting progressively bigger and a shark fin take off on the second jump making for some exciting spectating.
The competition marked the start of the first event of the 2024/25 FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe World Cup season and the first qualification event for the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games. It was also the first FIS Snowboard Slopestyle World Cup to be held on New Zealand snow since 2017.
The top eight women and sixteen men qualifying through to finals, which were due to be held Sunday but postponed due to weather.
