Tess Coady has recorded the second World Cup victory of her career, with an impressive gold medal performance in the slopestyle event at the Laax Open in Switzerland. Matt Cox and teen halfpipe sensation Valentino Guseli recorded personal best finishes to make it a great day for Australian snowboarding.
In a dominating performance, Tess won the qualification round, and had the two highest scoring runs in the final, sealing the deal with a spectacular frontside double 1080 on the last jump.
In the best of two run format, the 21-year-old from Melbourne scored 79.60 on her first run, and with victory already assured before her final run, she stepped it up to score 86.18 to finish ahead of Anna Gasser of Austria on 78.56 and Annika Morgan of Germany with 76.61.
“It feels so good to take the win today,” Tess said.
“Really just wanted to land my runs, I think that’s all you can ask for, so to achieve that today was just a win in itself for me.
“This event is always so sick, it’s run so well and the park is always built well. It makes a massive difference for the riders and how much you enjoy the event.
“The frontside 1080 is a new one for me. I learnt it a few months ago at Prime Parks in Stubai. I really wanted to bring it out today so super stoked I was able to do that."
In the men’s event, Matt Cox’s best score came in run number two, with a 65.78 giving him the best World Cup slopestyle finish of his career in seventh place.
In the men’s halfpipe final, 16-year-old Valentino Guseli put down two great runs scoring 80.50 on his first run, and 80 on his second run to finish in a personal best fifth.
Competing in his first event of the season, Scotty James unfortunately was unable to put two clean runs down in the final. He finished in 11th place after leading the star studded field with the highest score in the qualification event.
Tess, Scotty and Valentino will now head to Aspen, USA, for the X-Games which will take place in Colorado next weekend.
