Lake Wanaka, New Zealand – The world’s top ranked freestyle skiers battled it out under picture perfect blue skies at Cardrona Alpine Resort in New Zealand today, where Americans Torin Yater-Wallace and Devin Logan won the season’s first FIS Freestyle Ski Halfpipe World Cup titles.
A talented men’s field of 36 freestyle skiers competed in the qualifying heat for the top 12 spots. With two runs per round and the best run counting, France’s Thomas Krief, Yater-Wallace and Antti-Jussi Kemppainen of Finland took the top three spots.
Yater-Wallace, of Basalt, Colo., came out tops in the finals with a huge second run consisting of a double cork 1260 mute grab, an alley oop flat spin 540, a 900 tail grab, a 1080 tail grab and a switch right side 900 mute grab. The run earned 93 points to take the lead from Krief, who finished in second place with 90 points. Fellow Frenchman Benoit Valentin placed third overall with 84.2 points.
“We are trying to take it home for America since we are now in the Olympic qualifying period. It was a fun competition and I am so stoked to be here,” Yater-Wallace said. “ToTo [Thomas Krief] and I had the same first runs, I did a left 1080 to switch and he did a flat 360. I landed my first run, but it was sketchy. My second run went really well and I landed everything.”
Twenty-seven women lined up for the qualifier, and the women’s final produced some big spins and tail grabs. West Dover, Vt.’s Logan, the current Overall AFP World Champion, lived up to expectations by taking first place with a score of 83.0, despite not landing her first run. It was second and third for Japanese skiers Manami Mitsuboshi (80.0 points) and Ayana Onozuka (78.6 points).
“The weather and conditions were amazing today. I had a great qualifying round and really felt the pressure for my second final’s run, the Japanese girls were really pushing me,” Logan confessed. “I crashed hard on my first run and kind of bruised myself up, and I didn’t ski my best. I had to work hard to make it up and pull it together, but I was glad to be in the lead by three points in finals.
“I was lucky today, it’s a good start to the season.”
Wanaka local Janina Kuzma was the only New Zealand female to go through to the women’s finals in 12th place. A gutsy second final’s run and scoring 76.6 points put her in fourth place overall. Jossi Wells finished 7th overall for the Kiwi men, scoring 76.6 on his first run and not landing his second run.
“The pipe skiing was phenomenal today,” said head judge Spence Steele. “The top skiers were very impressive for the first competition of the qualifying season.”
For the first time ever, freestyle ski athletes’ competition points will count towards gaining an Olympic spot. The International Olympic Committee announced in April that men’s and women’s halfpipe skiing will be an Olympic sport at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
The action continues on Friday and Saturday with the FIS Snowboard Halfpipe World Cup, also at Cardrona Alpine Resort. Off-mountain, the Winter Games Adventure Film Festival takes place Friday through Sunday in Queenstown.