The inaugural 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games began with the men’s and women’s freeski slopestyle event at The Remarkables. The world class slopestyle course was treated to clear weather conditions providing the athletes with a great start to the Games.

First place in the Men's Final went to Thomas Wallisch from USA with a score of 82.80, second place went to New Zealander, Jossi Wells, with a score of 82.40, and third place went to USA's Bobby Brown with a score of 80.60.

The close scores reflected the tightness in the competition, "It was a really tough call between Wells and Wallisch and the final decision came down to just the slightest mistake," says Head Slopestyle Judge, Phil Larose.

Thomas Wallisch was pleased to win the inaugural event, "I was really stoked with the win and it was a really fun event. I'm glad I got to come out and participate." Jossi Wells, who finished a close second, was nevertheless excited to compete in a world class event in his hometown. "It is cool to have a competition at home and be able to bring all my mates to come down and do a competition in my backyard," he said.

Australian, Anna Segal took out first place in the women's event with a score of 86.80. "I was pretty stoked with how it all went today. It's not as big as we are used to hitting but this allowed us to get more creative," said Anna Segal. Second place went to Rosalind Groenewoud of Canada with a score of 77.60 and third place went to Dania Assaly with 76.00.

Head Slopestyle Judge, Phil Larose enjoyed the originality of The Remarkables course. "The course was pretty interesting, it was fun to see different stuff rather just the usual jumps and rails. The barrel bonk jump was really original and while the riders weren't used to it they found a way to do tricks on it anyway."

The stand out trick of the day belonged to Matthew Margetts from Canada who did a handplant cork three on the barrel bonk. "It was the sickest move of the day," said Phil Larose.

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009
WinterGamesNZ.com