Pair of bronzes quality reward for NZ snowboarders

New Zealand snowboarders Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Carlos Garcia Knight have shown their Olympic medal credentials by both claiming bronze at their home Winter Games.

The pair lined up in strong fields in yesterday’s slopestyle finals at Cardrona, near Wanaka, with 16-yearold Sadowski-Synnott putting down a strong first run in the women’s event to sit third after qualifying fifth.

She consolidated by improving the rail section on her second attempt, which scored 74.76 to be more than three points clear of fourth.

“I’m feeling good. I got the run I wanted,” Sadowski Synnott said. “I cleaned up the rail section and got the grabs.

“Finishing with a medal is definitely the cherry on top.”

American Olympic gold medallist Jamie Anderson scored 85.78 to claim victory, with Japan’s Miyabi Onitsuka second.

Knight, 20, qualified second in his heat on Sunday and laid down 84.58 on his second run to finish just one point behind gold medal winner Marcus Kleveland of Norway in the final.

Under pressure after a mistake in his first run, he landed consecutive 1260s for the first time in competition to claim a first World Cup medal.

Canada’s Darcy Sharpe claimed silver with a score of 85.33, with more than three points separating the topthree and American Chris Corning in fourth.

The medals are New Zealand’s second and third of the Winter Games after Carl Murphy was third in the World Para Snowboard Cup LL2 category on Saturday.