ANC slopestyle wins for Norendal and Kimata at Winter Games NZ

FIS Snowboard competition at the 2019 Winter Games NZ (NZL) wrapped up on Saturday with Australia New Zealand Cup slopestyle action hitting the perfectly-shaped park at Cardrona Alpine Resort, where birthdya girl Silje Norendal (NOR) and rising star Ryoma Kimata (JPN) claimed victories in an entertaining day of riding.

One of the most experienced athletes in the competition and celebrating her 26th birthday on Saturday, world second-overall ranked Silje Norendal landed three solid runs in the women’s competition, saving her best for last with a winning score of 95.33 on run three.
 
“I had a lot of fun on my last run and fun riding with all these girls. Second place is eleven years younger than me!” laughed Silje after the competition, going on to congratulate second-place-getter Melissa Peperkamp (NED) on her strong riding and the Dutch rider's stomped 720 at the end of her run.
 
Melissa was on impressive form all morning, landing three good runs and earning her place on the podium with her second run. She said that she was “very happy” with her result.
 
Third place in the women’s competition went to the 2018/19 FIS junior world champion in both slopestlye and big air, as Sommer Gendron (CAN) was able to keep her calm after bobbles on her first two runs to finally stomp her last-hit 720 in her third and final run.

The men’s snowboard competition saw a few shuffles in the rankings before the final podium placings were locked in. Hiroaki Kunitake (JPN) set the bar with a first run score of 92.33, before his countryman and reigning big air junior world champion Ryoma Kimata went one better, coming back from a crash on his first run to land 93.33 on his second run and jump in to first place.
 
Easing back in to his first competition since March 2018, Norway’s Torgeir Bergrem “just tried to keep it clean and not do the most technical run but make it look really smooth.” He was happy enough to get a solid first run down for a score of 87.00 but was looking to step up on his next two runs.  
 
Unable to do so, he held on to third place while the rest of the field took their third runs, with the expectation that top qualifier Matty Cox (AUS) would come through and knock him out of the top three.
 
But today simply wasn’t Cox's day, as he experienced some uncharacteristic slip ups on his rail section in his first two runs, before putting a hand down on the second jump of his third run. As Cox himself said, it was “a rough day in the office” for the 21-year-old, and he would finish in 10th, with Bergrem claiming the final spot on the podium in third.
 
The day didn’t go quite how New Zealand's top-ranked athlete Mitchell Davern (NZL) would have hoped. Qualifying top of his heat in yesterday’s competition, Mitchell got his first run down clean but needed a big step up to lift his score of 74.66 to match the podium. He couldn’t execute and finished his day in seventh.

Photos

Full results

**Top Runs

Women Snowboard**
1. Silje Norendal NOR. Boardslide to fakie, switch 50/50 to forward, switch back 540 indy, frontside 540 indy, cab 900 mute
2. Melissa Peperkamp. NED. Blunt 270 out, front lipslide, 50/50 front 10 out, cab 540 mute, backside 360 mute, frontside 720 indy
3. Sommer Gendron. CAN 50/50 backside 180 out, half cab to 50/50, 50/50 frontside 180 out, cab 540 mute, frontside 360 stale, backside 720 mute
  
Men Snowboard
1. Ryoma Kimata JPN 50/50 to boardslide 270 out, front 180 on cab 360 out, cab 180 on back 360 off, cab 900 underflip, back 1080 indy, front 1400 triple mute
2. Hiroaki Kunitake JPN. cab 270 270 out, blunt 270 out, 50/50 backside 360, front double 1080 mute, back 1260 melon, cab 1440 double grabbed
3. Torgeir Bergrem NOR. Blunt to pretzel out, cab 270 boardslide, switch blunt 270 out, cab double undeflip 900, frontside 1080 indy, backside 1260 mose grab