Sadowski-Synnott and Hasegawa steal the show at the Style Experience
Dec 10, 2023·Snowboard Park & Pipe
The penultimate competition of the 2023/24 FIS Snowboard big air World Cup season took over Canada’s largest sports venue on Saturday evening, as the Edmonton Style Experience once again brought some of the heaviest big air action we’ve ever seen to Commonwealth stadium, whereZoi Sadwoski-Synnott (NZL) and Taiga Hasegawa walked away with the wins.
SADOWSKI-SYNNOTT SETS A NEW STANDARD
The women’s competition was already shaping up to be Sadwoski-Synnott’s to lose after the 22-year-old locked in the highest score we’ve ever seen in any phase of a women’s big air competition in Friday’s qualifiers - a 99.00 for her switch backside 1260 tailgrab that was perhaps the gnarliest trick ever landed in competition by a female rider.
However, on Saturday the New Zealander put herself behind the eight-ball when she was unsuccessful with the switch backside 12 in run one, while the likes of Anna Gasser (AUT), Reira Iwabuchi (JPN) and Mia Brookes (GBR) all stomped in their first attempts clean.
As she’s proven time and time again, Sadowski-Synnott is seemingly impervious to pressure, and on run two she returned to the well one more time, stomping the switch backside 1260 tail clean and riding out to a score of 97.25 from the judges.
Still needing a solid run three to take top spot, Sadowski-Synnott then put down a steezy backside double cork 1080 melon grab for 86.00 points, adding up to a combined total of 183.25 for both runs to give her the win and her 11th straight podium at FIS Snowboard competitions (including Olympic Winter Games and World Championships) dating back to the start of the 2020/21 season.
“I’m super stoked to take the win today,” Sadowski-Synnott said following the awards ceremony, “It’s the first comp of the season for me so it feels good to come away with the win.
“Managing the pressure going into run two, I knew I could land the switch back 1260. Then I just had my fingers crossed for the back 1080. I’ve done that trick like 100 times, but with all the girls riding so well it motivated me to put it down when it mattered.”
She then went on to explain the switch backside 1260
Second place for the women on Saturday would go to Mia Brookes, as the 16-year-old earned her second World Cup podium of the season and the third of her career with another outrageously stylish performance. Putting down a cab 1080 melon on run one and a backside 1080 Indy on run two (and just narrowly missing out on a cab 1260 on run three), Brookes would finish a score of 167.00.
Not only that, Brookes would also finish the evening with the yellow big air World Cup leader’s bib on her shoulders, as with 190 points she was able to overtake Iwabuchi with the final competition of the big air World Cup season set to go down next weekend at Copper Mountain (USA).
Rounding out the podium in third place was Austria’s Anna Gassser, who put together the combo that has basically become second nature at this point her career - cab double underflip 900 Weddle and backside double cork 1080 melon - for a score of 159.25 and her second podium in a row after her win in Beijing. Like Brookes, Gasser tried to take things up a notch in run three going for a cab 900 nose grab to tail grab that we’ve never seen from her before, but couldn’t quite get the landing.
HASEGAWA STOMPS FINAL RUN OF THE EVENING FOR GUTSY WIN
The men’s competition was a wild and unpredictable one, with eight of the 10 finalists able to stomp at least one run scoring in the 80s, and the four top finishers all sending at least one score into the 90s as well.
After failing to land a switch backside 1440 on his first run, China’s Su Yiming stepped it up in run two with a switch backside 1620 melon to freshfish, which he then followed up in run three with a backside 1800 indy nosebone that would tie for being the highest scoring trick of the men’s competition - 94.25 points. With a total of 177.25 with just a few riders left to drop, Su was sitting in top spot, although that lead would prove to be short-lived for the 19-year-old.
The USA’s Red Gerard, dropping in on his first World Cup big air competition in nearly a year, made a solid run at Su’s score, dropping a massive backside 1800 of his own on run three that would earn the exact same 94.25 score as Su’s. However, when added to the switch backside 1620 Weddle from his first run he would come up just short, with a combined score of 176.00.
After top qualifier Nic Laframboise of Canada was unable to stomp his final run, it came down to Japan’s Taiga Hasegawa, who resisted the frontside 1800 frontside grab he had already stomped in run two, did it better in run three, and got rewarded with a score of 92.25. Added together with the 88.75 he received from his cab 1800 Indy on run one and it would be a total score of 181.00 and a first-place finish for the reigning big air World Champion, dropping Su to second and Gerard to third.
“I’m so happy,” Hasegawa said from the finish area, “Thanks so much everyone for coming. It was a lot of fun riding in front of this audience.”
While he missed the podium for the first time in his young World Cup career, Hasegawa’s Japanese teammate Kira Kimura would maintain his hold on the men’s World Cup leader bib with 185 points, while Su now sits just five points back with 180.
From Calgary we roll on to Copper Mountain (USA) for the final big air World Cup competition of the 2023/24 season, with qualifications going down on 13 December, followed by finals on the 15th.
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