Kiwi just short in bid to grab gold
Zoi Sadowski-Synnott laid it all on the line, only to come up agonisingly short in her pursuit of another gold at the World Championships in Aspen, Colorado, yesterday.
The Wa¯naka snowboarder had to settle for silver in the women’s big air after failing to execute a daring attempt at a trick she had never landed during her final run.
Sadowski-Synnott finished one point behind Canada’s Laurie Blouin but the slopestyle champion said she had no regrets.
The 20-year-old was still stoked to come away with her second medal of the 2021 FIS World Championships, believing she gave everything she could to win her first big air world title.
‘‘Laurie, she had two 1080s as well so it just came down to who had the best combined score,’’ she said.
‘‘But it’s pretty cool being that position when you get knocked out of first place into second. I’m not complaining.’’
Sadowski-Synnott led for most of the final after combining a stylish frontside double 1080 melon grab with a backside 1080 weddle grab to score a combined 176.75 points from her first two runs.
But she was relegated to second when Blouin nailed an attempt at a cab double 1080 indy grab to surge to the top of the leaderboard with only two riders left to compete.
Requiring a score of 85.75 or higher to reclaim the lead, Sadowski-Synnott tried a backside double cork 1260 melon but aborted the trick after one and a half rotations after misjudging the speed of the ramp in the snowy conditions.
‘‘I wasn’t anywhere near close because I’ve never landed it before.
‘‘I just wanted to throw it down. But I can’t control what the judges are scoring or anything like that, I’m just stoked to land what I set out to do.
‘‘For the higher end tricks, you don’t usually get a very definitive opportunity of when you’re going to do them so I’m not sure when the next time I’m going to be able to do it, so thought I may as well make the most of the opportunity.’’
Sadowski-Synnott’s previous best finish in the big air was a fourth place in 2017.