China's Eileen Gu And New Zealand's Finley Melville Ives Heading To Freeski Halfpipe World Cup Finals In Top Spots

Eileen Gu (China) and Finley Melville Ives (New Zealand) have qualified in the top positions through to the FIS Freeski Halfpipe World Cup Finals presented by La Roche Posay & Cardrona Alpine Resort. Kiwi Luke Harrold has also qualified through to finals in third position.

Today's qualification round saw 40 men battling it out for a spot in the 10 man final, and 23 women hunting for a spot in the 8 woman final. With the best of the best donning the green Winter Games NZ bib, it was a quite the show in Cardrona's 22-foot Olympic halfpipe. 

The top women's qualifier Eileen Gu, reigning Olympic Gold Medalist and 2024 X Games winner, put her mark on the competition from her first hit. She put down an impressive run, with trademark huge back to back 900's on her first two hits and finished with a massive alley oop flat 540 mute grab on her final hit to score a 92.00.

Despite leading the charge after run one, Gu still gave it everything for her second run, replacing a switch 360 with a switch 720 to bump her score up to 95.50 and qualify into finals as the only women who posted a score in the 90's. 2019 Winter Games NZ Freeski Halfpipe World Cup winner Zhang Kexin of China has also qualified through to finals in third position.

The men's qualification was split into two heats, with 20 men per heat. Alex Ferreira of the USA took the top spot in the heat one qualification round, looking to continue what was an exceptional season last year, winning seven-out-of-seven events and taking home the FIS Crystal Globe. Ferreira's run included both right and left double corked 1260's and plenty of amplitude as we have come to expect from the American skier.

Heat two was just as heavily stacked, with Wānaka local Finley Melville Ives taking the top spot with an impressive run that included five different directions of rotations and four different hugely technical double corked tricks, all performed with great amplitude and solid grabs throughout.

Melville Ives' compatriot Luke Harrold of Lake Hāwea was also in heat two and qualified through to finals in third position. Harrold finished his run with rarely seen, exceptionally technical tricks - back-to-back switch alley oop flat double cork 900s.

The judges explained how they were impressed with the level of riding they saw today, with solid grabs and some lofty 900's from the women and great amplitude and technicality from the men.

The FIS Freeski Halfpipe World Cup Finals presented by La Roche Posay and Cardrona Alpine Resort are set to go down on Sunday at Cardrona Alpine Resort. Come on up and check it out or tune in on the Winter Games NZ YouTube channel to catch the action!

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