An unreal week of riding under perfect conditions at a perfectly-prepared venue culminated in a thrilling day of finals action on Thursday at the FIS Snowboard Slopestyle World Cup Seiser Alm Legends, where Australia’s Tess Coady and Vlad Khadarin of Russia both stepped up to take their first career World Cup slopestyle wins in a thrilling day of competitions in the Italian Dolomites.
The F-Tech Snowparks-designed course in Seiser Alm has been a rider-favourite since the first year of World Cup competition at the venue back in 2016/17, and this season the course was the best we’ve ever seen it from the first day of training to the last run of the competition. Both the men’s and women’s competitions saw their fair share of drama, with podium positions being swapped out left and right throughout the day.
Coady takes maiden win
19-year-old Coady was on point from the beginning of finals, however, dropping in third-to-last after putting up the third-best qualification score and proceeding to stomp a run that saw her do switch bluntslide to regular on the waterfall rail, a perfect skate-style backside lipslide on the down rail out of the butterbox, and a 50-50 backside 180 melon out on the flat rail.
Through the jump line Coady was especially clean, with a switch backside 540, a huge backside 720, and a corked frontside 720 on the final jump to earn a score of 73.48 that would withstand all challengers to come.
“I’m so hyped,” Coady smiled from the finish area before the awards ceremony, “It’s my first slopestyle back since the (PyeongChang 2018) Olympics, where I injured my knee, and I was expecting to come out here and just get some experience doing slopestyle and competing again because it’s been such a long time. I was not expecting to win. It’s amazing.”
“I have so much respect for every person that’s gone through a knee injury. It’s such a long process. I had it in my mind that it would be like a year of rehab and I’d be back snowboarding, but the reality for me was that it’s take about two years to get back. There’s a lot of hurdles to get over. But I’m so happy I was able to persist through it all and I’m stoked to be back.”
Second place with a score of 72.11 went to Katie Ormerod of Great Britain, another rider in the midst of a comeback season that continues to get better and better. Thursday was Ormerod’s second-straight slopestyle World Cup podium after a third-place at last weekend’s Laax Open, and her double-backflip over the final jump in her second run but an exclamation point on her day. With 1400 points Ormerod now leads the 2019/20 slopestyle World Cup standings.
Third place went to top-qualifier Brooke Voigt of Canada. Last year’s Seiser Alm Legends runner-up, Voigt used the last run of the women’s competition to put it down clean, including a super-stylish switch back 540, and backside and frontside 720s through her jump section. With a score of 68.66 Voigt would have just enough to edge Loranne Smans (BEL) and take her second-straight podium at the venue.
Khadarin prevails in tense men’s competition
Over on the men’s side of the competition things got progressively more tense throughout the day, as some big tricks went down. However, some runs that looked like contenders ended up falling short as judges marked hard for any perceived mistake or bobble.
And this is where 21-year-old Khadarin set himself above the pack, putting down one of the smoothest, cleanest and most stylish runs of the day on his second and final attempt.
Starting things off with a picture-perfect backside lipslide on the waterfall rail, Khadarin then went frontside 180 up onto the butterbox to switch frontboard continuing 270 out on the downrail, and then finished his jib line off with a cab 270 on continuing 450 off on the flat bar.
Onto the jump line Khadarin was basically flawless, stomping a switch backside 1260, a flat frontside 1440, and a backside double cork 1260 to finish things off and earn himself a score of 85.25 and a lead he wouldn’t relinquish.
Khadarin’s first and only World Cup win before Thursday in Seiser Alm came three years ago at his first-ever World Cup comp, a big air event in Moscow, and after his first career slopestyle win he was suitably stoked.
“My coach once told me, ‘Don’t think, just feel,’ so before I dropped it was just like, let’s do this,” Khadarin said when asked about his thoughts before his winning run, “World Cups are very important for us (on the Russian snowboard team); we have a system to earn points for Olympic games and stuff, so to win is great. But also, I’ve lived in Italy now for the past eight years, so to win here is like to win at home. I’m so happy.”
The win would give Khadarin a total of 1070 points, and bump him into top spot on the men’s slopestyle World Cup rankings.
The podium was rounded out by a pair of Japanese riders, as Ruki Tobita and Hiroaki Kunitake went second and third respectively with what were possibly the two most explosive runs of the evening.
Tobita briefly put himself into top spot with a second run that included a half-cab on, backside 540 off on the flatbar, and last-hit 1440 in which he went so deep it felt like he was going to land on the finish-area cameraman. Tobita would become the first rider on the day with a score in the 80s – earning an 83.81 – but he’s lead would be short-lived, as Khadarin dropped in next to top it.
Kunitake was the top qualifier and last to drop on Thursday, and he put down a gutsy performance to make his way onto the podium. His backside 450 on, backside 450 off on the down rail was easily one of the craziest tricks of the day, and his final hit cab 1440 was a thing of beauty. With a score of 79.75 he would bump the USA’s Sean Fitzsimons and his score of 79.12 off the podium by the barest of margins.
From Seiser Alm, the FIS Snowboard World Cup tour is jumping across an ocean and a continent, heading to the USA’s Mammoth Mountain for a big week of slopestyle and halfpipe action in California.
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Photos: Buchholz / FIS Snowboard
Source: FIS Snowboard
