The 18-year-old Christiansen had no problems soaring to the win with 91.00 points, nearly seven points more than her nearest opponent. Still, she acknowledged that there was room for improvement before the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, saying, “Not my best but I’ve just got to train harder. I put down two solid runs so I’m stoked.”

Rounding out the podium was Canada’s Dara Howell, with 84.40 points and Germany’s Lisa Zimmerman with 72.00 points.

On the men’s side, James Woods (GBR) was the clear leader in the field, until Goepper came from behind, scoring a stellar 94.00 on the last run to steal the win . Goepper’s winning run featured a starting switch 360 to 180 over the wall ride to transfer frontside switch up to back 270 out on the downrail, hand drag 3 over the rainbow rail, a right double cork 1080 mute over the first kicker into left double cork 1260 tail on the second and finishing with a switch rightside double cork 900 screamin ’.

Goepper was clearly pleased to take the win , “I’m just insanely happy to be here – it’s really, really surreal and I didn’t even imagine this is how the day would go, but I’m just happy to be down here in New Zealand. It’s one of my favourite places to be and I couldn’t be happier.”

Woods finished in second place and edged Australia’s Russ Henshaw, who finished in third.

Asked about the current level of freeskiing at Winter Games NZ and on the world circuit, he added: “Today was ridiculous. You’ve got to be learning new tricks in your down time. It’s so consistent; every guy out there is so smooth and so technical; it’s tough!”

Source: the official FIS site