Big names confirmed for the halfpipe World Cup at Cardrona

Some of the world’s best freeskiers will be on hand at Cardrona Alpine Resort (NZL) in just over a month from now to kick off the 2019/20 FIS Freeski halfpipe World Cup season at the Winter Games NZ.

Taking place as part of Winter Games NZ programme featuring 26 competitions spread over 17 days of action, the FIS Freeski halfpipe World Cup along with the FIS Snowboard big air World Cup are without a doubt the highlights of the Games this year.

It will be the fifth time for Cardrona Alpine Resort to host the freeski halfpipe World Cup competition with the first event dating back to 2012, and the last competition going down in New Zealand two years ago in 2017. This year also marks the 10th anniversary of the Winter Games NZ.

And to make things even more exciting some of the big names in freeskiing have confirmed that they will be descending to the Southern Hemisphere to compete in this year’s edition of the Winter Games NZ.

In the ladies’ event we can expect the 2019 FIS World Champion Kelly Sildaru (EST) to go head-to-head against the 2019 halfpipe World Cup overall winner and the most dominant halfpipe athlete in the recent years Cassie Sharpe (CAN). Also let’s not forget about last year’s respective number two and three in the overall World Cup ranking Rachael Karker (CAN) and Zhang Kexin (CHN), and with just four names confirmed so far, the ladies event is shaping up to be a truly top-notch competition.

Over on the men’s side the 2017 and 2019 FIS World Champion Aaron Blunck of USA will be leading the way with the Canadian duo of Noah Bowman and the 2019 halfpipe World Cup overall winner Simon D’Artois also expected to make some noise in New Zealand. Then throw in the mix two of the local heros Nico and Miguel Porteous and it looks like also the men’s event should provide plenty of top freeski action.

But it’s not the end of good news as the organisers of the Winter Games NZ has confirmed a new three-year partnership with Sky Sport as the official broadcast partner of the Games. And the new agreement means that there will be four times more content coming to the fans in New Zealand available through different platforms along with a broad free-to-air coverage of the event, which details will be announced closer to the competition.

The qualifications for the FIS Freeski halfpipe World Cup competition will take place on Friday September 6, with the finals slated to go down the following day starting from 11:00 LOC.

For more information see HERE

Images from the 2017 FIS halfpipe World Cup competition staged at Winter Games NZ in Cardrona. © Neil Kerr & Iain McGregor / Winter Games NZ