Kiwi tops qualifying
Carlos Garcia Knight has produced a massive score to qualify at the top of the pile for the big air final at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
The Kiwi ace, who narrowly missed out on a medal in the men’s slopestyle finals, earned a huge score of 97.50.
Garcia Knight, who was fifth following the first of two rounds of qualifying in the second and final group of heats, went for a switch backside 1620 in both of his runs.
The first netted a score of 88.75 but the second run was a much bigger and better version.
Garcia Knight, 20, will give New Zealand a strong chance to secure just its second-ever Winter Olympics medal and the first in 26 years.
New Zealand’s only other medal was Annelise Coberger’s silver in the alpine skiing slalom at the 1992 Games in Albertville, France.
Garcia Knight was at the top of the leaderboard early in the men’s slopestyle finals 10 days ago before fading to finish fifth.
‘‘I can’t even believe it. It’s been the craziest day. This is the best qualifying event in big air history for snowboarding and to be up the top is surreal right now. I’m still buzzing.’’
The top six qualifiers from each of the two heats would start in Saturday’s 12 rider final.
Despite being just inside the top six after his first run, Garcia Knight was not feeling any pressure before his second thanks to a laidback chat with his coach Sean Thompson.
‘‘I talked to my coach, John, at the top, and he said to me that this has been awesome, you’re riding super good, you’ve proved yourself, so it’s just about going out there, having fun and doing it the best you can. Putting your flair on it, you know,’’ Garcia Knight said.
‘‘I wanted to do something I was proud of, something I thought looked good and felt good, and did it the best I’ve ever done it.’’
Meanwhile, in the men’s ski cross, Cantabrian Jamie Prebble narrowly missed out on the quarterfinals, finishing third in his 1/8 final, with only the first two placegetters advancing.
Earlier, Prebble finished his seeding stage run in 25th out of 31 skiers with his time of 1min 10.48sec.