Snow Sports NZ athlete Tiarn Collins (Queenstown, 24) has finished just off the podium in fourth place at the Silvaplana Snowboard Slopestyle World Cup.
Collins laced together an absolute heater of a first run, landing every trick cleanly. His run included a backside 1620 melon grab on the second jump into a frontside 1440 stale fish grab on the third jump. To round out his run he stomped a huge cab cork 720 on the quarter pipe and finished off with a cab 270 on, 450 out of the final rail.
After the first run, Collins was sitting in podium position and was looking to step up the difficulty for his second run. Unfortunately, he took a heavy crash on the third jump, meaning he had a nervous wait to see if his first run score would hold up against the remaining 13 riders yet to drop to see him finish on the podium.
With just two riders left to go, Valentino Guseli of Australia put down an impressive run that pushed Collins out of podium position into fourth place. Liam Brearley of Canada took the win today, with Taiga Hasegawa of Japan in second place. Guseli rounded out the podium in third place.
18-year-old Kiwi snowboarder Dane Menzies competed alongside Collins in the slopestyle finals tonight, marking his career first world cup finals. Menzies had qualified through to the heavy finals in the top spot, a remarkable achievement. Unfortunately he was unable to land a clean run today and had to settle for a fifteenth place finish.
Today’s competition marks the end of the 2024 FIS Snowboard Slopestyle World Cup circuit. Tomorrow (Sunday night NZT) we will see the freeskiers take their turn on the Silvaplana slopestyle course, with Ruby Star Andrews, Ben Barclay and Luca Harrington set to compete.
