Rebecca Sinclair had
the run of her life at the FIS World Snowboard Championships
in La Molina, Spain, yesterday, taking fourth place.
Wanaka-based Sinclair, a New Zealand Olympian in Vancouver in
2010, finished second at the Junior World Championships in
New Zealand in August, and immediately set her sights on a
top performance at the world championships.
Momentum built throughout the event for Sinclair, who landed
a strong run in qualifying to post the 10th-highest scoring
run of the day, progressing her through to the semifinals.
Consistency and an ability to perform under pressure helped
Sinclair step things up a notch in the semifinals, where she
finished eighth. Then it was time to go for gold in the
finals.
During a short training session between the semifinals and
the finals, Sinclair landed a frontside 540 to backside 540
to frontside 720 combo for the first time.
She took this momentum from training and performed the same
combo in the finals to achieve a personal best performance.
The event was won by Holly Crawford, of Australia, with
Ursina Haller, of Switzerland, second and 2009 world champion
Jiayu Liu, of China, third.
In the men's event, Wanaka's Mitchell Brown was the standout
New Zealand performer.
Brown nailed his first run in the semifinals and looked good
for a spot in the 12 man final, but got bumped one spot in
the second run and had to settle for 13th place.
Australia celebrated a double gold with Nathan Johnstone
taking the men's title.
Today, a a full squad of eight slopestyle riders will battle
it out with the rest of the world in qualifying, before
progressing to semifinals and finals.
"Training has been going really well," head coach Tom
Willmott said.
"We are stoked Bex and Mitch's performances today and we look
forward continuing the momentum."
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