Great weather conditions prevailed for day two of the 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games at The Remarkables. The Snowboard-Slopestyle qualifications kicked off with New Zealanders making up over half of the 30 strong qualifying field, six of whom made it through to the final 12.

Head Slopestyle Judge, Ola Sundequist said the number of New Zealanders in the field was a great reflection of the depth New Zealand's snowboarding talent. "Along with the high level of talent in the field there were a number of up and coming future Kiwi stars," he said.

New Zealander Stef Zeestraten illustrated this by finishing first in the men's with a score of 44.00.

Further New Zealand domination continued with second place going to Queenstown local Nick Hyne with a score of 42.60. Gjermund Braaten from Norway, the World Rookie Champion of 2008, finished third with a score of 41.00.

Stef Zeestraten said, "It was pretty cool to be home and do so well. Not only are all the New Zealanders killing it today but it's awesome to see New Zealand put on a cool event."

Fellow kiwi, Shelly Gotlieb, followed suit by taking out first place in the women's event with an overall score of 46.90. Shelley, who originally hails from Ohakune, recently came fifth in the 2009 US Burton Open but thinks today's win was more special due to it being at home.

"It was awesome to get gold in my home country, it's an awesome feeling. We all had a really great day and all the kiwi's killed it," said Shelly Gotlieb. Second place went to recent Burton NZ Open winner Jamie Anderson from the USA with a score of 36.60 and third place to Aimee Fuller of Great Britain with 27.80.

Monday, August 24th, 2009
WinterGamesNZ.com

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