The second day of the world junior snowboard and freestyle championships began as a "bluebird day" at Cardrona Alpine Ski Resort, which was hosting the snowboard cross event.
Snow conditions were good but cloud soon rolled in, causing a delay.
Wanaka's Benji Sutherland (18) competed with a broken hand after a training accident on Friday but did not progress past the quarterfinals.
It was a double blow for the New Zealand snowboard cross team as Winter Olympian Rebecca Sinclair (18), of Wanaka, had earlier announced on Friday a pre-season ankle injury had not healed sufficiently to allow her to compete in the event.
Coach Mike Bell described Sutherland as a "real trooper" for his determination to compete with a cast on his hand.
He qualified for the quarterfinals in 14th place on the basis of his first run time of 1min 10.05sec, just 2.79sec slower than the first qualifier, Maximillian Stark (19), of Germany.
The event was eventually won by second-fastest qualifier Nikolay Olyunin (19), of Russia, with United States athletes Roger Carver (20) and Alex Tuttle (19) winning silver and bronze, respectively.
The women's race was won by Eva Samkova (17), of the Czech Republic.
The world championships continue today at the Snow Park with the freestyle ski slopestyle competition from 9.30am.
Competing for New Zealand are Wanaka athletes Jossi Wells (20), Byron Wells (18), Beau James Wells (14) and Hamish McDougall (20); and Queenstown athletes Matt Soundy (19) and Matt Johnson (19).
