Murase and Spalding take the wins in weather-shortened slopestyle season opener at Cardrona
Sep 02, 2024·Snowboard Park & Pipe)
It wasn't an ideal end to the much-hyped 2024/25 FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe season opener on Monday at New Zealand’s Cardrona Alpine Resort, as a string of bad weather days finally resulted in the cancellation of finals at the Winter Games NZ slopestyle World Cup and the reversion to qualification results as the final results for the competition.
With sustained windy conditions experienced throughout much of the week, followed by an overnight storm on Sunday that forced the closure of Cardrona chairlifts for Monday and the ultimate cancellation of finals, the full use of Friday’s favourable weather window to complete the full qualification slate was an achievement unto itself.
With quali results standing as the final results in Cardrona, it was last season’s double crystal globe winner Kokomo Murase of Japan walking away with the women’s victory after putting down a score of 78.10 in her second qualification run on Saturday.
For the men, it would be Canada’s Cameron Spalding taking the first win of his World Cup career with a standout first run and a score of 82.50 in the men’s qualification session.
Spalding’s winning run, meanwhile, began with a switch frontside 180 on to frontside 360 out on the rollercoaster rail, a 50-50 up, backside 270 lipslide down on the rainbow rail, and then a frontside 270 on to 630 melon grab out on the cannon rail, before the 20-year-old went through the jumps with a switch frontside 1080 Weddle grab, to switch backside 900 Weddle, and finally a show-stopping backside 1620 tailgrab on the last hit.
"I am over the moon,” said Spalding after the awards ceremony in Wanaka on Monday afternoon, “I was just trying to have as much fun as I could, especially when it's hard weather conditions. It can be tough, but at the same time snowboarding is an outside sport and we have to deal with weather everywhere we go so you just learn to deal with it over time."
Second place for the women went to 17-year-old reigning slopestyle World Champion Mia Brookes of Great Britain with a score of 71.65. Third place belonged to the USA’s Rebecca Flynn, who dropped in on just the fifth competition of her World Cup career and walked away with a score of 57.58 for her first World Cup podium.
On the men’s side of things it was Mons Roisland of Norway earning his first World Cup podium in almost two and a half years with a score of 81.75 for his second run in heat one. Meanwhile, it would be New Zealand’s own Rocco Jamieson leading a historically strong performance for the host nation, earning a score of 77.75 to claim his first career World Cup podium on a day when three NZL riders would finish in the top six of the men’s competition.
FIS Park & Pipe World Cup action at the Winter Games NZ continues this week with freeski halfpipe competition going down from 07-08 September. For our next FIS Snowboard World Cup action, meanwhile, we look ahead to the Big Air Chur in Switzerland, taking place on 19 October, 2024.
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