Bilous, 24, put down a stunning run, including a gnarly 360° over the Hollywood cliff and a huge cross-court 360° on the super exposed face, impressing the judges and delighting the huge crowd gathered at the bottom.
Bilous was joined on the podium by Marcus Goguen, of Canada, who claimed the win and German Max Hitzig who finished second.
Fellow Kiwi and winner of last week’s Freeride World Tour stop in Fieberbrunn Ben Richards, 24, of Wānaka, finished fifth with a trademark high-speed run.
As yesterday’s competition was the final event of the 2024 Freeride World Tour the overall champions were crowned.
Hitzig took the title in the men’s ski category while Richards finished in third overall, with Bilous just behind him in fourth.
- Queenstown snowboarder Tiarn Collins finished just off the podium in fourth at the Silvaplana snowboard slopestyle world cup yesterday.
The 24-year-old laced together a wonderful first run, landing every trick cleanly.
Unfortunately, he took a heavy crash on the third jump, meaning he had a nervous wait to see if his first run score would hold up against the remaining 13 riders yet to drop to see him finish on the podium.
With just two riders left to go, Australian Valentino Guseli put down an impressive run that pushed Collins out of podium position into fourth place.
Canadian Liam Brearley claimed the win from Taiga Hasegawa of Japan in second.. Guseli rounded out the podium in third.
Kiwi snowboarder Dane Menzies, 18, competed alongside Collins in the slopestyle finals, marking his career first world cup finals.
Menzies had qualified through to the heavy finals in the top spot but was unable to land a clean run and had to settle for 15th.
- Snow Sports NZ athlete Adam Hall, of Wānaka, finished fifth at the men’s standing FIS para alpine slalom world cup finals in Italy yesterday.
"I am really happy to have been able to pick up some consistency and keep that going through the second half of my competition season, and finish fourth in the slalom world cup standings for 2024," Hall said.
Hall put down two solid runs through the technical course, showing his talent and experience.
It was a tightly fought race but Frenchman Arthur Bauchet secured the win, rounding out an impressive season.
