Noah Bowman, of Canada, shows the form that won him the
title in the freeski halfpipe at the Junior World Snowboard
and Freestyle Championships at Cardrona Alpine Resort in a
truncated competition yesterday. Photo by Belinda Jones.
Hopes of a second New Zealand medal at the Junior World
Snowboard and Freestyle Championships crashed yesterday when
Byron Wells was denied a second halfpipe run when patchy
weather cut the competition short.
Wells (18) qualified as the top male for the halfpipe finals
yesterday afternoon and was carrying the weight of
expectation after his older brother, world champion freeskier
Jossi Wells (20), was ruled out of the event because of an
ongoing ankle injury.
Byron lined up alongside his younger brother Beau-James (14)
as the only New Zealanders to make the scheduled two-run
format for the finals of the freeski halfpipe at Cardrona
Alpine Resort.
A heavy overnight snowfall of about 25cm delayed the start of
the competition as the halfpipe was cleared and the weather's
disruptive influence did not aid the Kiwis' cause.
Byron crashed in his opening finals run when he failed to
land his first aerial trick.
The lost opportunity came back to haunt the Wanaka skier when
the clouds rolled in and eventually forced the cancellation
of the male finalists' second runs.
Noah Bowman (18), of Canada, landed the best first-up run,
for 40.5 points to win the junior world champion title.
Beau-James Wells landed a 25.8-point run on his first attempt
to finish as the best Kiwi in seventh place, with Byron the
last finalist in 15th.
United States skier Walter Wood was second, and Kristopher
Atkinson, of Canada, was third.
Fog also necessitated a change in the women's competition as
last finalist Devin Logan (United States) waited for two
hours for a break in the weather to complete the scheduled
two-run format.
The competition reverted to a single-run judged format, with
US skier Britta Sigourney's first run enough to win the
title.
Her second run, the highest score of the girls' competition,
was ruled out by the rejigged format.
Hannah Haupt (US) was second and Logan third.
Mikayla Austin (16) was the only New Zealand girl in the
competition and finished sixth.
She was also the best-performed Kiwi in Saturday's
skier-cross racing, when she finished 11th.
Norwegian Didrik Bastian Juell won the male ski cross
discipline and Switzerland's Fanny Smith was the fastest
female down Cardrona's custom-made race course.
Katrin Ofner, of Austria, was second in the girls' ski cross
race with Yulia Livinskaya, of Russia, third.
Juell was joined on the podium by his Austrian compatriot
Morten Ring Christensen, as Georgy Kornilov, of Russia,
claimed third.
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