Madeleine Disbrowe (Queenstown, 16) and Lucas Ball (Nelson, 16) have been crowned the women and men’s FIS Australia New Zealand Cup Freeski Big Air champions today at Cardrona Alpine Resort.
Three other Kiwi athletes also stood on the podium, with Finley Melville Ives (Wānaka, 18) joining Ball on the freeski podium in third place and Lyon Farrell (Arrowtown, 25) and Rocco Jamieson (Wānaka, 18) finishing in second and third place respectively in the men’s snowboard competition.
With clear skies and not a breath of wind, the scene was set for an absolute heater of a competition and the level of riding was exceptional. Held on Cardrona’s world class big air jump, over 60 ski and snowboard athletes representing seven nations dropped in to compete for valuable FIS and ANC points.
Disbrowe took the win in the women’s Freeski competition, putting down a stylish left corked 720 tail grab and impressed the judges with her clean execution. Caoimhe Heavey of Great Britain finished in second place, with Indra Brown of Australia rounding out the women’s Freeski Big Air podium in third.
Disbrowe explained, “I was quite nervous, as I haven’t done a left corked seven before on that jump. Landing that trick on the first run really helped take the pressure off my second run.”
Ball, who came into today’s event off the back of a podium finish at the 2024 Winter Games NZ, impressed the judges right from the get-go. Despite sitting comfortably in second position after his first run, he dropped into his second run and put down a hugely technical triple corked 1800 with a safety grab.
Ball explained; “It feels super good, I am really proud. It was a really high level of competition out there so I was stoked to put it down today. I only just learnt that trick [the triple corked 1800] the other day, but I knew that it’s what I needed to do and managed to sneak it around and land it.”
Cameron Waddell of Australia finished in second place, with Melville Ives finishing in third.
The men’s snowboard field was stacked, with World Cup podium athletes dropping in alongside up and coming local riders. Farrell put down a double corked 1800 with a double tail grab that he sent to the moon to finish in second place. Japan’s Hiroto Ogiwara took the win, with Jamieson rounding out the podium in third.
Today we also saw the age divisions (under 8-years to under 16-years) competing in their first day of competition for the week. The snowboarders took on the RIDE Slopestyle courses and the skiers flew down the Salomon Skier-Cross. Congratulations to every single athlete who showed up and represented themselves proudly.
The Cardrona NZ Freestyle Nationals is being held at Cardrona Alpine Resort this week from 30 September – 4 October 2024. Included in the 2024 programme is the final stop of the 2024 FIS Australia New Zealand Cup series, with the Freeski and Snowboard Big Air, Halfpipe and Slopestyle events.
The Cardrona NZ Freestyle Nationals will also see the age division NZ National Champions crowned in Skier-Cross, Boarder-Cross, Freeski & Snowboard Halfpipe and Freeski & Snowboard Slopestyle. At the end of the week the overall National Champions will also be crowned for all age divisions.
