Marino and Brearley take slope wins, Ono and James on top in pipe at 2024 Laax Open
Jan 20, 2024·Snowboard Park & Pipe
The 2023/24 FIS Snowboard slopestyle season got underway in epic fashion on Saturday afternoon, where bluebird conditions, a stacked field from top to bottom, and one of the world’s very finest venues saw a huge showing from the North American contingent, with Julia Marino of the USA claiming her second career Laax Open victory, and Canada’s Liam Brearley earning his first career World Cup win with a storming final run.
After a bit of a battle with the weather through the week, Saturday dawned without a cloud in the sky and with no wind, meaning that the finals riders would be able to show their absolute best on the primed Laax Open course.
MARINO MAKES IT FOUR-STRAIGHT WORLD CUP WINS DATING BACK TO LAST SEASON
For Marino that meant putting down not just the top run of the women’s competition with her second attempt, but the third-best scoring run of the day as well with her first, as the 26-year-old continues to prove herself as the most consistently excellent slopestyle riders in the world right now.
Marino’s 83.08-scoring second run began with a Cab 270 on to 270 off on the down rail, and then a 50-50 frontside 360 off on the launch rail to finish off the top jib section. Off the tricky wing jump she then put down a backside 900 melon, before going switch frontside double cork 900 frontside grab on the first table, frontside double cork 1080 melon on the second big jump, frontside air on the quarter pipe, a pop over the pyramid, and finally nosepress frontside 180 out on the down bar to finish things off.
“I just try to keep things smooth and consistent, and that’s really been working out for me lately,” Marino said after locking down her ninth career World Cup victory and fourth straight slopestyle World Cup win dating back to last season.
“The young riders push me so much,” Marino went on, after acknowledging Japan’s Kokomo Murase, who became the first woman to attempt a backside triple cork 1440 in slopestyle competition. “They’re extremely talented and push the boundaries, and it makes me think I can do that too. So they push all of us to step up our game.“
Second place for the women with a score of 80.75 went to top qualifier Annika Morgan of Germany, who put down a second and final run that very well could have won the competition were it not for a sketchy final rail.
Rounding out the podium in third place for the women was Anna Gasser of Austria, whose second run began with a backside noseslide pretzel 270 out, to switch frontside lipslide 270 out, then a switch frontside double cork 900 frontside grab on the wing hit, to a frontside 720 slob on the first jump, and a backside double cork 1080 on the final jump, then a backside air on the quarterpipe, indy transfer over the pyramid, and finally 50-50 frontside 180 out on the down rail.
LAST RUN HEROICS FOR BREARLEY TO TAKE CAREER-FIRST WORLD CUP WIN
For the last two days of men’s competition it was all Liam Brearley, as the 20-year-old put down the top score in Friday’s semifinals and then backed that up in a big way in Saturday’s finals.
Sitting just off the podium in fourth before his final run - which was also the final run of the 2024 Laax Open slopestyle competition - Brearley lead things off with a crazy stylish switch backside 270 to forward, then a backside boardslide to corked 630 tail grab to clean the top two rails, before going with a backside 1260 Weddle on the wing jump, switch frontside double rodeo 1080 truckdriver and switch backside 1260 melon on the tabletops, a huge frontside 720 stalefish on the quarterpipe, half-cab 5-0 to forward over the pyramid, and finally locked-in noseslide switchup backside lipslide continuing 270 out on the final rail.
Add it all up and it’s a score of 89.93 and a Laax Open victory.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet for sure,” Brearley said when the dust had settled on his first World Cup win, “But it feels crazy to do it, especially on the last run. Here in Laax on such a nice day too, everyone was sending it…I am so happy with how it turned out.“
Second place with a score of 85.31 for the men went to Ryoma Kimata of Japan, whose second run began with a switch frontside 270 to 270 off, and then a frontside lipslide corked 630 melon out, into a frontside 1080 frontside grab on the wing hit, a backside 1620 melon on jump one, switch backside 1620 melon on jump two, backside 540 Indy on the quarterpipe, boardslide transfer, and then boardslide to 50-50 backside 180 out on the kinked rail.
Finally, third place for the men went to Brearley’s Canada Snowboard teammate Cameron Spalding, who earned his second career World Cup podium with a run that began with backside 450 on to frontside boardslide, switch frontside 180 to 50-50 to backside 540 melon out, then a switch backside 900 Weddle, a frontside 1440 stelmasky, a backside 1620 tailgrab, then a switch frontside 720 slob in the quarterpipe, and then a 180 tap transfer over the pyramid before closing things out with a switch frontside boardslide for a score of 83.90.
JAMES AND ONO CLAIM HALFPIPE WINS IN A WILD ONE
In the evening’s halfpipe competition the bitter cold that descended upon Crap Sogn Gion in the didn’t scare away the thousands upon thousands of fans who lined the Laax Pipe to witness what many (us included) believed had the potential to be one of the most progressive halfpipe competitions of all time.
It’s debatable whether that potential was fully realized, as so many of the magic-moment tricks thrown down were part of incomplete runs, or would lead end up in falls themselves - as with reigning World Champion Chaeun Lee’s (KOR) back-to-back triple corks or Liu Jaiyu’s (CHN) frontside double cripplers. Then there was Ayumu Hirano (JPN) crashing out on the final hit of his second attempt in what was shaping up to be perhaps the gnarliest run of the reigning Olympic champion’s career
Then there was Chloe Kim (USA), returning to competition after two years out of the bib, to a venue where she had only claimed victory in her four previous starts, and failing to put down a clean run in both of her two attempts, in a shocking outcome.
In the end it was Mitsuki Ono of Japan making it back-to-back Laax Open wins, while Scotty James of Australia climbed back on top of the Laax podium for the third time in his career - but his first win here since 2020 - with both Ono and James also taking over the yellow World Cup leaders bibs in the process.
Ono’s score of 81.75 for her first run would withstand the few challengers she would face in a final that unfortunately saw three DNS’s due to injury.
Second place behind Ono with a score of 77.50 was 16-year-old Bea Kim of the USA, who claimed the first World Cup podium of her young career in just her fourth World Cup start. Rounding out the women’s podium in third was another Japanese rider in Ruki Tomita, who locked in a score of 60.50 on her second run to secure her second career World Cup podium.
James’ first run score of 94.00 would prove to be the men’s winner on the night, earned with the 29-year-old’s signature combination of technical aplomb and crystal clean landings.
Meanwhile, second place went to James’ young countryman Valentino Guseli, and the 18-year-old also walked away from the Laax Open as the lone rider to really put down a never-been-done-in-competition trick when he stomped a frontside 1620 tailgrab in his second run.
While a little scrub in the landing of that trick likely cost him a chance at victory, Guseli’s score of 92.25 would give him his first podium of the season and the first Laax Open podium of his career.
Third place for the men was last season’s Laax Open winner Ruka Hirano of Japan, who stepped things up big time in his second and final run, joining the evenings 90-point club with a score of 90.00 exactly on his way to his 14th career World Cup podium in his 20th career start.
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