Boarding now: Kiwi ace flies to World Cup gold
Sadowski-Synnott powers back from early crash to nab top spot in Austria
New Zealand teen snowboarding phenomenon Zoi SadowskiSynnott has kicked off her 2021 World Cup campaign in style in Austria.
Competing in the first Snowboard Big Air World Cup of the season and the first opportunity for athletes to earn qualification points towards the 2022 Winter Olympics, Sadowski-Synnott overcame an opening-run crash to claim gold.
The competition format allowed her to combine the scores of two of her three runs, meaning her final two were executed superbly under extreme pressure.
“It was pretty difficult [after crashing on the first run], I put a lot of pressure on myself, but I wanted to land the backside 1080 in competition,” SadowskiSynnott said.
She stomped that backside 1080 — the first time in competition — during her second run before landing a switch-back 900 in her third run to take the win with a combined score of 162.40 points.
“I only learnt it [ the backside 1080] in New Zealand this summer and so I was just stoked to land that in my second run. It really set me up for the switch-back 900.”
Japan’s Kokomo Murase achieved the single highest score of the night but finished second with an overall score of 161.80, while
Snowboard Big Air veteran Anna Gasser, of Austria, rounded out the podium with 161.40.
“I can’t believe it [the level of riding]. Everyone was sending it; the jump was so perfect and girls were sending. It was sick,” Sadowski-Synnott said of the competition.
Seven Kiwi athletes competed over the weekend in Kreischberg in snowboarding or freeski.
In the snowboarding, Cool Wakushima (Queenstown) finished 17th on her World Cup debut, Tiarn Collins (Queenstown) was 18th and Mitchell Davern (Auckland) 36th.
On the freeski side, Margaux Hackett (Wanaka) finished 12th, Ben Barclay (Auckland) claimed 38th and Luca Harrington (Wanaka) placed 48th in the first Big Air World Cup of his career.