ANC and SAC seasons coming to a close

More than halfway through the month of September and almost two weeks after the successful opening of the 2019/20 FIS Freeski World Cup season at Winter Games NZ in Cardrona (NZL), and there’s still plenty of freestyle action going down in the Southern Hemisphere. Today we take a look at the latest news from South American (SAC) and Australia/New Zealand Cups (ANC).

For those of you who missed the season’s opening World Cup halfpipe event that saw Zhang Kexin of China and Birk Irving of the USA both put down hugely progressive runs to walk away victorious, you can enjoy our competition’s recap along with the video highlights HERE.

Staying in Cardrona at Winter Games NZ, two more ANC freeski events went down on Aug 25 - Sep 2. Halfpipe competition were dominated by China’s duo of Eileen Gu and Mao Bingqiang. In the slopestyle event it was again Gu, who topped the podium on the women’s side, while representing New Zealand Ben Barclay finished with the win in men’s competition. Our recaps from both competitions are available here: HALFPIPE & SLOPESTYLE.

Changing disciplines to moguls, the ANC saw three competitions to take place in Perisher and Mt Buller with numerous World Cup athletes on hand in Australia also competing in what was an exciting week of moguls action on Aug 27 - 31. Anthony Jakarta (AUS) and Ikuma Horishima (JPN) took victories in the single moguls events in Perisher on day one, while the historic first dual moguls team event went in the books the following day with Rino Yanagimoto (JPN) and Mikael Kingsbury (CAN) of Team Pacific claiming the win. Brodie Summers (AUS) and Rino Yanagimoto led the way in dual moguls competition at Mt Buller. Results from those events can be found here: PERISHER / MT BULLER while the full video replay can be seen HERE.

While in Australia also the ski cross athletes got a handful of opportunities to race on the track at Mount Hotham in four competitions on Sep 3-8. Host nation squad included World Cup veterans Sami Kennedy-Sim and Anton Grimus, while also some of the world’s top guns like Canada’s Brady Leman, Marielle Thompson and Brittany Phelan were present in Australia ready to showcase their best skills. Results from Mount Hotham are available HERE.

Over in Cerro Catedral (ARG) the SAC big air event went down on Sep 7-8 with Nahuel Medrano (ARG) taking victories in both men’s events. Full results can be found HERE. Also the ski cross competitions went down as part of the SAC in Pucon (CHI) earlier this week on Sep 16-17 and the results will be soon available HERE.

Despite the ANC and SAC seasons slowly coming to a close, two more FIS events are slated to take place in the next weeks. First slopestyle athletes will take on the course in Chapelco (ARG) on Sep 23-24, then one week later Cardrona will host another double event with halfpipe competition taking place on Oct 3 and slopestyle following up on Oct 4-5. Full FIS calendar can be viewed HERE.