Wanaka athletes start well in north

WANAKA athletes have made a strong start to the northern hemisphere snow sports season.

Finn Bilous and Tiarn Collins have both achieved eighth places at the Big Air World Cup finals in Modena, Italy.

Bilous went all out in the finals as he eyed a podium finish.

After crashing on his first attempt, he landed his second, but did not quite execute his third and recorded a low score.

As the top two scores counted for final placings, that left him in eighth place.

It was just his second time competing in a city Big Air, and his first finals under lights.

He had been happy to give it a good shot, although disappointed with not being able to pull off his tricks.

‘‘I was really happy to make it through to the finals after two heavy qualification heats,’’ Bilous said.

‘‘I decided to go all in for finals and try to put down two triple cork variations for my jumps.

‘‘I was gutted to only be able to put down one of my triples; however, I went in to the finals with an allornothing mentality so I’m happy to have given it a good crack tonight.’’

Collins was back in his first competition since injuring his shoulder at the Winter Olympics.

He was ‘‘stoked to be back in the mix’’ and also finished in eighth place.