Snowboarding: Up-and-comers' chance to impress

More than 80 snowboarders competed in the New Zealand Snow Board Open yesterday at Cardrona Alpine Resort's half pipe, hoping to advance to tomorrow's and Saturday's semifinals and finals.

Wanaka's Rebecca Sinclair performed the best of the New Zealand athletes, finishing second and progressing to the women's semifinals tomorrow.

The top ranked halfpipe riders, such as Danny Davis, of the United States, Queralt Castellet, of Spain, Iouri Podladtchikov, of Switzerland, and US Olympians Hannah Teter and Kelly Clark, do not have to qualify and proceed straight to the semifinals, giving lesser-ranked and junior athletes the chance to impress the judges.

Brett Esser, of the US, and Kazuumi Fujita, of Japan, were the strongest performers in the men's pre-qualifying and qualifying rounds and won 81.58 points and 80.70 points respectively.

Esser's tricks included a Frontside 1080 Tail Grab, a Cab 720 Lien, Frontside 900 Tail Grab and Backside 900. Other men to make the cut were Tore Holvik, of Norway, Sato Shuhei, of Japan, and Dylan Bidez, of the US.

In the women's event, Japanese riders Haruna Matsumoto and Hikaru Oe were first and third in that order, with Wanaka-based rider Rebecca Sinclair second.

Matsumoto earned 83.65 points with tricks such as a Frontside Air, Method Air, Frontside 540, Backside 540 and Frontside 720. Sinclair scored 82.53.

Xuetong Cai, of China, and Holly Crawford, of Australia, also made it through to the semifinals.

The competition was judged for the first time by two judges, rather than one.

The change occurred after feedback from coaches and team managers earlier this week. The competition continues today with slopestyle semifinals.