SNOWBOARD SLOPESTYLE: Tess Coady’s competitors might be warier of her at the Junior Snowboard Slopestyle World Championships this weekend, after she produced a strong sixth-place finish at the Spindleruv Mlyn World Cup on Saturday.
16-year-old Coady was “hyped as” to have booked her ticket all the way through to the final after she finished the qualification round of 35 athletes in third place.
While the different slopestyle course may have rattled some, Coady loved the challenge it presented.
“I was really looking forward to dropping into this course,” Coady said.
“The features were different to the usual three jumps and three rails, instead there were more rails and transfer features and only one jump so it was a really creative and playful course which made it really enjoyable to ride!”
In the final round, 16-year-old Kiwi Zoe Sadowski Synnott prevailed with a score of 87.35 to win the gold. Canada’s Spencer O’Brien won silver with 81.22 and Silvia Mittermueller of Germany rounded out the podium with a score of 73.40.
In what was only her second World Cup appearance, Coady’s score of 66.68 put the boarder from Jindabyne, NSW in sixth place and 21st position overall on the FIS Snowboard Slopestyle World Cup rankings just in front of fellow Aussie Jess Rich in 22nd place.
Rich did not compete this weekend but both riders will look towards qualification for the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games over the next few months.
Jamie Anderson (USA) also sat out of the final having secured her fourth career Slopestyle World Cup Crystal Globe, and Anna Gasser (AUT) was also absent from competition, having already claimed the overall FIS Snowboard Freestyle World Cup title prior to the final stop of the long season.
Coady will stay put in the Czech Republic to represent Australia at the Snowboard Junior World Championships this weekend. Competing on the same course, she is feeling confident ahead of the event.
“It will be good to ride an already familiar course again, as well as we have three more days to practice on it so plenty of time to change up and add things into my run,” she said.
“I just want to put down a run in the first place and see where is goes from there!”
Coady finished sixth in her World Cup debut at Mammoth Mountain in early February 2017. The following month she joined a group of elite Australian winter athletes in Spain for the Sierra Nevada World Championships, where she placed 11th in the Slopestyle and 21st in Big Air.
2017 has been a break-through season for Coady, and the experiences will put her in good stead for future competitions.
“The most important thing I have learnt this season is probably about staying open minded to new courses and to be willing to try different tricks on different features as well as enjoying riding these fun and some pretty exotic courses!”
The Junior Snowboard Slopestyle World Championships will be held in Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republish this weekend. The Slopestyle event will be contested on the Friday, and Big Air on the Saturday.
Georgia Thompson
olympics.com.au
