Wanaka snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott had soared to new heights, winning Switzerland's LAAX Open Slopestyle World Cup for the first time.
The 21-year-old Olympic gold-medallist was delighted with her achievement: “I am so stoked; I have been dreaming of winning the LAAX Open since I started competing. The weather has been pretty nuts, practice was pretty crazy, so to have the sun come out for finals is super sick.”
After a postponement due to snow and low visibility, the LAAX Open snowboard slopestyle World Cup finals went down last night. The course was running slow due to fresh snow overnight and riders were searching for every ounce of speed they could find.
Sadowski-Synnott laced together a solid first of two runs, including a front 450 out of the second rail, which impressed the judges. She showed her class and experience, making trick decisions mid-run to manage the speed, opting for a backside 720 instead of her planned 1080 on the third jump.
After her second run Sadowski-Synnott had a nervous wait at the bottom of the course as Austrian Anna Gasser and Mia Brookes of Great Britain still had their final runs to go.
“Sitting down here was nerve-wracking as Mia’s run was so good and even watching Anna go down, it could have gone either way. I am so glad I put down that first run," she said.
Meanwhile, Queenstown's Tiarn Collins competed in the men’s slopestyle finals last night.
A wobble in run one meant the 23-year-old didn’t complete his first run. He put together his second run, but just a couple of small mistakes in such a highly stacked field cost him dearly, finishing in 10th place.
Sadowski-Synnott will next be in action this coming weekend at the invite-only Aspen X Games, where she will be defending her Big Air and Slopestyle gold medals.
