Gu and Barclay claim ANC slopestyle wins in Cardrona

Finals day brought a spectacular showdown at the FIS Australia New Zealand Cup freeski & snowboard slopestyle presented by Cardrona Alpine Resort on Sunday.

Ben Barclay (NZL) was never in doubt for a podium placing as soon as he had the first run on the scoreboard, taking the lead right from the get-go with a score of 87.33. Scoring highly for the difficulty and variety of his rail tricks and then backing up with well-executed and technical jump tricks, the win was his for the taking.
 
“I’m over the moon with the win,” said Ben after the competition. “It was a long road after that high score being on my first run, I was pretty anxious throughout but overall I couldn’t ask for a better result.”
 
With three ANC podium placings this season (including first and second in freeski big air) the 17-year-old is well set for the upcoming Northern Hemisphere season.

Taisei Yamamoto (JPN) also had a high scoring first run with a technical rail section and big clean grabs on his jumps but lost points for a small bobble on the rails and finished his day in second place.

A delighted Luca Harrington (NZL) claimed “the biggest result I’ve ever had”, finishing in third. “I’m in shock, I’m in disbelief, I’m just so happy right now,” he said after the competition.
 
Although not quite the run he had in mind, Luca scored 80.66 on run one and upped that to 83.00 on run two, finishing with a huge switch left double cork 1080 safety.

Eileen Gu was the deserved winner on the women's side of competition, getting solid grabs on every spin and demonstrating solid trick execution throughout her run. An 88.33 on her first run of the day was enough to seal the win.
 
“I think today it came down to style and consistency. I was really focusing on trying to make everything clean, everything grabbed and I think that worked out well for me,” said Eileen after the competition.
 
Ruby Andrews (NZL) backed up her qualifying result to finish in second place in today’s women’s freeski finals. Ruby landed her top score on her third run, showing well-executed rail tricks, and making an impressive come back from a crash on her second run.
 
“It was pretty nerve-wracking but I just got out there and stomped it,” said Ruby.

Australia’s Abi Harrigan jumped up in to third place on her very last run by adding a 720 as her second jump trick and being duly rewarded with an increased score.

Full results: WOMEN / MEN

Source: Winter Games NZ