Youngsters Bilous, Wells miss slopestyle final
PYEONGCHANG: New Zealand’s Winter Olympics freestyle skiing campaign begun yesterday with the early eliminations of promising youngsters Finn Bilous and Jackson Wells.
Bilous (18) crashed heavily while attempting a triple cork on his first run in PyeongChang, but the 2016 Youth Winter Olympics silver medallist skied away before an impressive second effort.
He registered 85 points with good form off the rails then a couple of double cork 1260s (3.5 spins with two offaxis flips) to sit 12th and on the cusp of progressing to the final.
But he was out soon after when Canadian Alex Beaulieu Marchand came from outside the top 12 to blitz his run with a score of 94.20.
‘‘I bit through my tongue. I got some good whiplash and was spitting blood coming down through the finish line [on the first run],’’ Bilous said.
‘‘But I just brushed that off and looked forward to the next run.’’
Bilous finished 0.8 points behind Swiss Jonas Hunziker, who was the last qualifier place.
He said he had no regrets attempting the triple cork on his first run.
‘‘I did a few of them in training a couple of days ago and they were feeling really good,’’ he said.
Wells (19) posted 52.8 with his first run but after a mistake on the first rail section of his second run, he pulled out of any further tricks and finished 25th.
‘‘I had fun up there, trying to just land my runs but couldn’t quite get it going,’’ Wells said. ‘‘It’s the nature of our sport.’’
New Zealand alpine skiers Adam Barwood and Willis Feasey were about 10sec off the pace to finish 34th and 36th respectively in the giant slalom yesterday.