Italian siblings Flora and Miro Tabanelli are the top qualifiers for today’s FIS Australia New Zealand Cup freeski slopestyle at the Winter Games.
The pair each shone in qualifying at Cardrona yesterday.
Flora Tabanelli, who won the silver medal at the world junior championships in New Zealand a year ago, threw down a technical run that put her 13 points ahead of her nearest women’s competitor.
She executed cleanly on the rails and capped off her run with a switch bio misty 900 on the third jump.
Madeleine Disbrowe (Queenstown) and Sylvia Trotter (Wānaka) both qualified for the top-eight women’s finals, putting down solid runs on the Big Bucks terrain park slopestyle course.
In the men’s semifinals, Japanese skier Olly Nicholls put down an impressive first run, but with the athletes dropping in reverse order, it was a nervous wait.
Miro Tabanelli had the pressure on for his second and final run, but that was no problem for the world cup podium athlete.
Tabanelli put down a highly technical run with a complex, smooth rail section. On the third rail, his front cork 810 was one of the standout tricks on that feature for the day.
He followed that up with a clean jump line, lacing together a double corked 1080 into a double corked 1260 tail grab, and finished off with a switch double corked 1260.
Lucas Ball (Nelson) and Fergus McArthur (Queenstown) also made it into the top-10 finals after putting down solid runs in both the men’s qualification and semifinals.
The level of riding from the 59 athletes representing eight nations was exceptionally high.
"We saw a very high level of skiing today, a great level of competition, and we saw lots of really technical runs and great use of this unique course," head judge Jason Arens said.
"The shark fin [second jump] is a defining factor among the field and really separated those who have qualified to finals."
Yesterday marked the start of the second ANC event of the 2024 season, the valuable points counting towards the overall series.
The Kiwi or Australian winner of the series will be granted a personal FIS world cup start for the upcoming northern hemisphere season, a hugely valuable opportunity for athletes with their eyes on the 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
