Snowboarding: Zoi Sadowski-Synnott soars to World Cup win in Switzerland

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott celebrates at the podium. Photo / Snow Sports NZ

Kiwi snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott has won the LAAX Open Slopestyle World Cup in Switzerland for the first time in her career.

Sadowski-Synnott laced together a solid first of two runs, including a front 450 out of the second rail, which impressed the judges. She showed her class and experience, making trick decisions mid-run to manage her speed, opting for a backside 720 instead of her planned 1080 on the third jump.

Dropping into run two Sadowski-Synnott aimed to tidy up her run, but a couple of mistakes resulted in a slightly lower score than her first. But her first run score of 81.30 held up as the top score of the day and she secured the win at the LAAX Open, the first in her decorated career.

“I am so stoked,” she said after the event. “I have been dreaming of winning the LAAX Open since I started competing. The weather has been pretty nuts, practice was pretty crazy, so to have the sun come out for finals is super sick.”

After her second run Sadowski-Synnott had a nervous wait at the bottom of the course as snowboarding great Anna Gasser of Austria and talented up-and-comer Mia Brookes of Great Britain still had their final runs to go.

“Sitting down here was nerve wracking as Mia’s run was so good and even watching Anna go down, it could have gone either way. I am so glad I put down that first run,” Sadowski-Synnott said.

Brookes, a 16-year-old snowboarder from Great Britain, claimed second place at the first slopestyle World Cup of her career, with Gasser rounding out the podium in third.

Sadowski-Synnott will next be in action this weekend at the Aspen X Games, where she will be defending her big air and slopestyle gold medals.

Tiarn Collins of Queenstown finished in 10th place in the men’s slopestyle finals, after failing to complete his first run and making a couple of small mistakes in his second.