Wanaka, New Zealand - Freeski and snowboard athletes were treated to clear, calm conditions for the final day of competition at the 2016 Cardrona Games today. 80 athletes, including home-grown Kiwi talent as well as a strong international contingent, threw down their best tricks in the 22ft high Olympic halfpipe at Cardrona Alpine Resort near Wanaka.

Kelly Sidaru (EST) claimed her third win in as many days in women’s freeski while Taylor Seaton (USA) secured the win in men’s freeski, beating NZ’s Nico Porteous by one point.

Competitors had two qualifying runs to earn their top score judged on fluidity, amplitude, and difficulty and combination of tricks. The top 12 men and top six women then progressed to finals.

Cardrona NZ Park & Pipe team rider, 15-year-old Nico Porteous (Christchurch) was the top qualifier in men’s freeski with a first run score of 90.3, easily meeting his initial goal to “put down a solid run and make it through to finals.”

“It’s definitely good to have a solid comp going down with a lot of good runs happening,” he said.

Slopestyle champion Kelly Sildaru (EST) surprised no one by putting down two superb runs in the halfpipe and topping the women’s freeski qualifiers a full 14 points ahead of her nearest rival, Japan’s Saori Suzuki.

Kelly Sildaru proved that she is at the forefront of progression in women’s freeski, laying down tricks such as both way 9s which few other female skiers in the world are currently doing. Her technique was exceptional, with consistently high amplitude, good variety and solid grabs. She never looked in doubt for the win, and nailed it on her second run with a score of 95 from a possible 100 points.

Second and third place-getters, Saori Suzuki and Yurie Watable of Japan, both had good runs with strong switch skiing, plenty of variety, and decent amplitude but lacked the grabs and bigger rotations which Sildaru had demonstrated.

The men’s freeski podium was decided with the very last run of the competition. Nico Porteous had sketched out on his first run and, the last man to compete, needed to better Taylor Seaton’s score of 95 points for the win. Laying down a highly technical run which included the only double landed in the competition, he looked like he was in with a good chance.

A nervous wait ensued as the judges took their time to compare two very different runs. While Seaton’s run had been less technical, it had been somewhat of a clinic in pipe skiing technique, with lots of variety, solid grabs held all the way through his tricks and the all-important amplitude. The finer details became key and in the end Nico’s final run, which had lacked a little in amplitude and the variety of grabs, was scored at 94 for second place.

Kwang-Jin (KJ) Kim of Korea scored 91 for a third place finish.

Source: fis-ski.com