NZ Snowboarder Tops World Champs Qualifying

Sierra Nevada, Spain (9 March 2017) – NZ snowboarder Carlos Garcia Knight (Christchurch) was the top scoring competitor in the slopestyle qualifying heats of the FIS Freestyle Ski & Snowboard World Championships held on Thursday in the Spanish resort of Sierra Nevada. Team mate Tiarn Collins (Queenstown) recorded the third highest score of the day in the men's field (second in his heat) while 16-year-old Zoi Sadowski Synnott (Wanaka) placed fifth in the women's heats. It is one of the strongest New Zealand Park & Pipe team performances in competition this season.

Garcia Knight, who has family based in Spain, says "having them there cheering me on and enjoying themselves was a highlight." Buoyed by the support and with his run on lock in practice, "it all came together" in competition and the young rider put down a solid second run top to bottom of the course.

The huge course built on the Loma de Dílar slope features a four kicker line (with the third jump part also offering some jib features) as well as two massive rail sections, one of which is constructed in the style of an Andalusian village.

Carlos' run included: Back double 10 mute to crip 5 on the transition feature, to switch back 12 indy, to front 10 melon, to 50-50 wildcat on the battleship, to tail sameways on the rooftop rail.

Tiarn Collins wasted no time ticking off his goal of qualifying for the finals, digging deep in the trick bag and landing a clean run on his first attempt.

"I was super pumped to put down my first run as I was really wanting to make it through to finals," he explains. "The highlights of my run were the back to back 1260s on the last two jumps (back 12 to cab 12), and spinning all four directions on the jumps. I'm excited for finals on Saturday."

With the female competitors starting late in the day there was plenty of time for nerves to build. However, Zoi Sadowski Synnott kept her eyes on the prize, making creative use of the course and landing a solid run which included: switch back one stale, to front three indy tuck knee, to back 3 mute, to laid out backflip, to front 1 cab 1 mute on the whale tail, to gap on back 50-50 indy grab out on the container.

The top 16 men and top eight females will contest snowboard slopestyle finals on Saturday.

Halfpipe and snowboard cross qualifying rounds are scheduled for Friday. Live Scoring is available at this link

In NZ TV coverage of some finals events is available on DUKE Sport. See attached for details.

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