Lee and Ruud shine at ANC slopestyle event in Cardrona

The finals of the Australia New Zealand (ANC) Cup Slopestyle were held at Cardrona Alpine Resort near Wanaka today with Mee Hyun Lee of Korea winning the women’s ski event and Birk Ruud of Norway the men’s competition.

Competitors each had two runs through the course which comprised three rail features and three jumps, with only their top scoring run counting on the result sheet.

The weather helped shake up results with several of the top qualifiers unable to land their runs in the gusty conditions and variable visibility.

However, many competitors used this event as a warm up for the Audi quattro Winter Games NZ which get underway on the 25 August.

In the men’s field it was Birk Ruud landing his first run perfectly putting himself clearly ahead of the rest of field. But his stand out trick came on the final jump of his second run when he threw down a triple cork 16.

A backslide to cork 4 out with mute grab on the canon also distinguished Ruud from his competitors.

Young American Cody LaPlante also stood out on the canon with a misty 4 out followed by three doubles on the jump line to earn him second place. Japan’s Gen Sasaki finished third.

Mee Hyun Lee’s technical, smooth rail tricks and huge switch 7 off the last jump earned her the win in women’s ski.

“I was ready for whatever came today and determined to keep a positive mentality no matter what the conditions were like so I’m feeling really glad and happy about my result,” said Lee.

Nanaho Kiriyama (JPN) saved her best performance for finals, pulling some new tricks out of the bag for second place. Third place went to Germany’s Kea Kuehnel.

Full results here: https://www.cardrona.com/winter/plan/events-calendar/fis-continental-cup/