Bilous edged out of final 12

New Zealand’s wait for a second Winter Olympics medal goes on; the freestyle skiing campaign has begun with the early eliminations of promising youngsters Finn Bilous and Jackson Wells.

Bilous crashed heavily attempting a triple cork on his first run in PyeongChang yesterday but the 2016 Youth Winter Olympics silver medallist skied away before an impressive second effort to finish 13th, one spot off progressing to the top-12 final.

He registered 85 points with good form off the rails then a couple of double cork 1260s (31⁄ spins with two off-axis flips).

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, ultimately good enough for bronze.

“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.

“I weighed up whether to go for that same trick on the bottom and we decided to pull it back just a little bit and do a trick which has been more consistent for me, which is the switch double cork 1260.

“Went for it, landed it well and I was crossing my fingers, but it was pretty heartbreaking.”

Bilous finished 0.8 points behind Swiss Jonas Hunziker, who took the 12th and last qualification place.

“I was definitely stoked laying that last run,” Bilous said.

Norway’s Oystein Bratten won gold with a score of 95.00 from American Nick Goepper (93.6) and Beaulieu-Marchand..

Wells managed 52.8 on his first run but a mistake on the first rail section of his second ended his hopes of a big score and he skied the rest of the course backwards without attempting jumps, focusing on safely making it to the bottom, to finish in 25th.

“You always have nerves but you use that as adrenalin to try and pump out your run,” said Wells, the youngest of the four Wanaka brothers.

“I had fun up there, trying to just land my runs but couldn’t quite get it going. It’s the nature of our sport.”

In the giant slalom, New Zealand’s Adam Barwood and Willis Feasey finished 34th and 36th out of 109.

Attention turns to the halfpipe today, with Janina Kuzma and Britt Hawes in the women’s qualifications.