Great Britain's James Woods Takes Snowy Freeski Slopestyle Gold At Park City Mountain
Woods’ long-time coach Pat Sharples paid tribute to event organisers for managing to complete the ski slopestyle event in the face of weather which has hampered the overall World Championships programme.
“The last couple of days have been incredibly tough,” said Sharples. “The conditions have been really difficult due to heavy snowfall and high winds, but all the athletes, support staff, coaches and event staff have done their best to make the event happen.”
Every skier in the field seemed to struggle with the wind and low visibility that persisted--and at times got worse--through the contest. The qualification runs were moved from Tuesday to Wednesday morning due to weather. And then just as the athletes were scheduled to begin the finals, officials issued a course hold that lasted for around 45 minutes.
The ladies’ ski slopestyle has not yet made it to the qualification stage due to the adverse weather with organisers still monitoring conditions to see if there is a window in the competition programme to run the event.
Should it go ahead, Izzy Atkin will be looking to add to the World Championships ski slopestyle bronze she won in 2017 as well as the third place she achieved in ski big air on Saturday.
** The adverse weather conditions have forced the cancellation of the snowboard big air competition, with Rowan Coultas and Matt McCormick now waiting to join Jamie Nicholls in slopestyle later in the programme
** In Sweden, Jack Gower opened Great Britain’s campaign at the World Alpine Championship however he failed to finish the race after missing the final gate of the course
** Menna Fitzpatrick and Jen Kehoe followed up their World Championships success on Wednesday with a victory and a second place finish in the two super G World Cup races in Veysonnaz, Switzerland. Another super G race is scheduled for tomorrow before giant slalom races later in the week.
