Southern Hemishpere’s freestyle season in full swing
Aug 15, 2019·Freeski Park & Pipe
We’re only half way through the summer here in the Northern Hemisphere with most of the pro skiers still enjoying the off-season. After an exciting, but also very intensive 2018/19 World Cup campaign and a highly deserved summer break, most of the athletes and teams are back to their daily routine of skiing on glaciers and working out in the gym to get ready for another season. Meanwhile over in the Southern Hemisphere the winter season is in full swing with numerous competitions already in the books and many more still to come.
All competitions from the 2019/20 season can be viewed HERE, while the detailed competition programmes for both Australia/New Zealand Cup (ANC) and South American Cup (SAC) are available HERE and HERE, respectively.
The first Continental Cup competition in the Souther Hemisphere went down in La Parva (CHI), where two SAC slopestyle events took place on Aug 3-4. On day one it was Benjamin Garces (CHI), who took the win ahead of his compatriot Francisco Salas in second and US rider Luke Price in third. On day two, however, it was Price who claimed the victory with Mateo Boncalza of Argentina finishing in second and Garces rounding out the podium in third.
Images from the SAC slopestyle event in La Parva (CHI). Photos by Freestyle Tour Chile/HD Sports
Two more stops are slated to take place in the freeski portion of the South American Cup this season, the next one on Sep 7-8 in Cerro Catedral (ARG) and the final competition going down in Chapelco (ARG) on Sep 23-24. La Parva in the meantime will host one more SAC event, this time the ski cross competition set for Aug 30 - Sep 1.
On the other side of the globe the first competition of the 2019 Australia/New Zealand Cup went down in Perisher (AUS) on Aug 7-8, with two days of big air action heating up the atmosphere at the Australia’s most famous ski park.
Cheng Jiahui of China dominated the women’s first event and took the top spot ahead of second Mia Rennie (AUS) and third Yang Shuorui (CHN). Over on the men’s side of thing it was Jackson Wells (NZL), who claimed the victory with another kiwi rider Ben Barclay finishing in second and Troy Podmilsak (USA) taking third place.
Stepping things up from her third place performance, Yang Shuorui went for the win on the following day. Second place went to Mia Rennie, for back-to-back podiums in Perisher, while Yang Ruyi (CHN) rounded out the women’s podium in third.
In the men’s event it was once again the New Zealand’s duo of Barclay and Wells to lead the way in the competition. This time, however, it was Barclay who managed to outscore Wells as he jumped on top of the podium. Wells finished the event in second place with third place going to Taiyo Kawai of Japan.
Photo impressions from the ANC big air event at Perisher © Perisher
Also the moguls fans have plenty of reason to get excited about the upcoming weeks. Just this past weekend Perisher’s Mogul Matt’s course (named after Matt Graham) hosted the 2019 NSW Junior Series and with two bluebird days of competition, the event proved to be once again a big success.
Soon Perisher will also host the first NAC moguls event of the season at world-wide known Toppa’s Dream course, which are slated to take place on Aug 27-28 for back-to-back moguls competitions. Then the athletes will travel to Mt Buller on Aug 31 to compete in dual moguls.
Australia will also host the sole ski cross event of 2019 NAC on Sep 3-8 at Mount Hotham.
Last but not least also Cardona Alpine Resort (NZL) has plenty to offer when it comes to FIS competitions. This week Cardrona will host the slopestyle NAC competition, while the 2019 Winter Games NZ are coming up in just a couple of weeks time (Aug 23 - Sep 7) and feature two World Cup competitions - snowboard big air and freeski halfpipe.
To find out more about the upcoming 2019/20 FIS Snowboard and Freeski World Cup competitions see HERE (snowboard) and HERE (freeski).
