Kiwis took home seven of the 12 medals on offer yesterday including three golds. It was an all-New Zealand podium in the men’s ski competition with Wanaka’s Hank Bilous taking top spot followed by 2016 champion Sam Lee, also of Wanaka, with Matthew Sweet, of Hamilton, in his first senior competition in third.
‘‘I think with a full New Zealand podium it just shows the home town advantage. It’s such a great field of guys, so for us to come out with a Kiwi top three I think shows the benefit of skiing this area so much,’’ Bilous said.
In the women’s skiing competition, Spain’s Laia Castellarnau Plaza came first ahead of New Zealand skiers Jessica Hotter in second and Wanaka’s Anna Smoothy rounding out the podium in third.
The snowboard competition was also dominated by the New Zealand athletes with Roland Morley-Brown and Maria Kuzma taking gold in the men’s and women’s competitions respectively. ‘‘It means a lot to be here, because I haven’t been in New Zealand for two years, and being part of the Audi Quattro Winter Games, it just makes the competition that much more prestigious and taking first places means that much more.’’
● It was an all-American podium in the women’s snowboard halfpipe World Cup event at the Cardrona Alpine Resort yesterday.
Seventeen-year-old American Chole Kim beat Winter Olympic gold medallist Kelly Clark by 2.5 points with top qualifier Maddie Mastro finishing with the bronze medal.
Kim was leading after the first run after landing a clean frontside 1080, three full rotations and continue to jump high out of the superpipe for the rest of her run, scoring a 90.50.
Clark also landed a clean 1080 but was unable to match the clean trick execution of her young compatriot, scoring a 88.00 for second place.
‘‘It was nice to land something,’’ Kim said. ‘‘On the second run I wanted to try the back-to-back tens but it was a bit wild. Cleaning it up for the next contest will probably be a priority for me.’’
In the men’s event, Japan’s Yuto Totsuka edged out fellow countryman and Winter Olympic Silver medallist Ayumu Hirano by just one point, to take the win.
● At the Snow Farm it was almost an American take-over with all but one spot in the Winter Games cross-country classic sprints event going to an athlete from the United States. In the men’s race, American Benjamin Saxton took the win, with Japan’s Kaichi Naruse looking set for second until the last 30m, when Benjamin Lustgarten dug deep to pole past the Japanese skier near the line, giving the Americans the top two honours.
American skiers dominated the women’s event with sprint specialist and winner Sophie Caldwell being pushed hard by Ida Sargent in second and Caitlin Patterson in third.
The final day of cross-country competition will take place today with the classic mass start, with the women racing 10km and the men 15km.
