Third for Kiwis in slopestyle

Kiwi snowboarder Zoi SadowskiSynnott had never landed this run in training, but yesterday it gained her a World Cup bronze medal at the slopestyle event up Cardrona ski field for the Winter Games.

It went a little bit like this: Tail press, backside air, front 180 off, backside 540, melon grab, frontside 720, mute grab finished off with double wildcat. Sounds simple right?

Definitely not, but the 16-yearold has no fear in trying something new and it paid off when she was lined up on the podium with her American idol and world No 1 Jamie Anderson (first) and Japan’s Miyabi Onitsuka (second).

Also achieving bronze in the men’s slopestyle world up event was fellow Wanaka resident Carlos Garcia Knight, who was ‘‘stoked’’ to pull off a run he was also new to.

Garcia-Knight said he had expected a podium finish as he had been waiting for this event all year and is looking towards the 2018 Winter Olympics.

At 16, Sadowski-Synnott was the youngest in her field and said the bronze medal came as a shock. She had grown up watching Anderson and could not believe she was standing next to her when the American cracked open the champagne on the podium.

For Sadowski-Synnott, however, she received a can of Redbull, with Games organisers taking the responsible stand on the legal drinking age. Sadowski-Synnott had finished last in the heats and 10th overall so had thought the competition was all but over for her on Sunday afternoon.

‘‘I was like I have to up myself and do better and don’t worry about the podium or anything and I just wanted to put down a run I was proud of. I’ve never landed it before in competition or ever actually, that was the first time I had done that successfully so I am really stoked. I knew it was there I visualised it before.

‘‘I’m feeling good, I got the run I wanted. I cleaned up the rail section and got the grabs. Finishing with a medal is definitely the cherry on top.’’

She had no idea her run was going to be good enough for the bronze, until the very last boarder was off the slopes she said.

‘‘I was just waiting to see if i got bumped by all the other girls because they were killing it but it didnt happen.’’

Sadowski-Synnott said she was impressed with the competition and felt it was stacked full of talent, namely Anderson.

‘‘She’s the competition legend. everyone wants to beat her.’’

While the success of yesterday was going to take time to sink in, her next goal in mind is to grab a medal at next year’s Winter Olympic Games.

Meanwhile, Anderson confirmed she would be back for another Winter Games after her gold medal effort and said New Zealand was one of her favourite places in the world to train and explore.

Garcia Knight, 20, may have been under pressure to land his second run after a mistake on his first, but showed no signs of nerves on the slopes.

He landed back-to-back 1260s for the first time in competition.

‘‘I was pretty nervous at the top. There was a lot of pressure to land it on the second but I knew I had it. I wanted to land the back to back 12s, I’ve never done that before in competition but I knew if I can do it in training I can do it in competition.’’

Norway’s Marcus Kleveland won gold in the men’s field, scor- ing highly on both of his two runs with technical tricks spun in multiple directions. Darcy Sharpe of Canada grabbed the silver medal.