Goepper and Williams on top in slopestyle qualifications in Font Romeu
Aug 31, 2018·Freeski Park & Pipe
Font Romeu (FRA) - The slopestyle World Cup season 2016/2017 has finally kicked off on Thursday with men's qualifications held under the blue sky and with perfect fresh snow conditions in Font Romeu. At the end of the day it was McRae Williams and his US teammate Nich Goepper who clinched their respective heats and led the group of Top 16 men into the Saturday's finals.
With the event in Font Romeu beginning the qualification process for 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeong Chang, the starting list was chock-full of some of the biggest names in sport. 73 skiers dropped in on what appears to be one of the most demanding World Cup courses, including some very tight features leaving the athletes little room for error in order to maintain the right speed throughout the whole run.
Heat 1 saw McRae Williams stepping it up right in his first run and with 92.80 points he topped his group ahead of Jesper Tjader (SWE) and Alex Bellemare (CAN). The remaining five spot in the heat guaranteeing place in the Saturday's finals went to Alex Hall (USA), James Woods (GBR), the last year's slopestyle World Cup winner Andri Ragettli (SUI), Evan McEachran (CAN) and Teal Harle (CAN).
In heat 2 Nick Goepper scored 89.40 points in his second run what was just enough to earn him the first place in this heat ahead of the second Antoine Adelisse representing France and Goepper's US teammate Joss Christiansen finishing the day on third. Jossi Wells (NZL), Luca Schuhler (SUI), Felix Stridsberg-Usterud (NOR), the current big air World Cup leader Henrik Harlaut and Oliver Magnusson (both throwing down for Sweden) rounded out the top 8 and we will see them all compete again in the finals on Saturday.
While men's competition went down with nearly perfect weather conditions on Thursday, the ladies didn't have that much luck the following day. Strong winds, low visibility and big snowfalls first forced the organizers to first delay their training session, just to finally call it off and postpone the qualifications on the finals day.
The ladies qualifications are now scheduled for Saturday at 10:00 CET with the finals about to go down at 13:30.
LIVE SCORING:
Live brackets will be available HERE.
LIVE TV BROADCAST:
SFR 3 - France (Livestream available on FACEBOOK)
NBC - USA (Livestream available HERE)
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