The first events of the FIS World Cup and AFP World Tour platinum started in New Zealand this week at Winter Games NZ, with four Americans qualifying for the halfpipe finals. Devin Logan (West Dover, VT) took first, as the only American woman to qualify. Among the men, Lyman Currier (Boulder, CO), Aaron Blunck (Crested Butte, CO) and Broby Leeds (Vail, CO) qualified.
The events are part of the Audi Quattro Winter Games NZ—the biggest recurring sport event of New Zealand held biennially.
Logan nailed her first run, scoring a 92.20 in Cardrona’s Wells Halfpipe, with a straight air mute, alley-oop critical, left 540 tail, right 540 Japan, left 720 and a switch alley-oop 540 Japan.
“Today was awesome. I only arrived a couple of days ago, so I’m definitely still getting my feet underneath me,” Logan told Fuseworks Media. “I’ll definitely be switching it up in the finals. I’ve been working on some new tricks on snow, so I’m hoping to put a new trick into my run in competition mode.”
Just behind Logan were Japan’s Ayana Onozuka and Janina Kuzma of New Zealand. Jeanee Crane-Mauzy (Park City, UT) almost cracked the top six to qualify, but finished seventh and Paula Cooper (Steamboat Springs, CO) was ninth.
Lyman Currier finishes second in the qualifiers. (Getty Images-Neil Kerr)
Among the 10 men that qualified for finals, Currier took second behind Kevin Rolland of France, Blunck was sixth and Leeds took eighth. Birk Irving (Winter Park, CO) just missed qualifying, finishing in 11th, while Lennon Vaughan (Steamboat Springs, CO) was 13th, Jaxin Hoerter (Breckenridge, CO) 16th and Jake Mageau (Bend, OR) 19th.
Halfpipe finals take place on Sunday, August 23rd.
RESULTS
Qualified Women
1 Devin Logan (USA)
2 Ayana Onozuka (JPN)
3 Janina Kuzma (NZL)
4 Rosalind Groenewoud (CAN)
5 Saori Suzuki (JPN)
6 Mackenzie Wilson (CAN)
Full results
Qualified Men
1 Kevin Rolland (FRA)
2 Lyman Currier (USA)
3 Benoit Valentin (FRA)
4 Beau-James Wells (NZL)
5 Thomas Krief (FRA)
6 Aaron Blunck (USA)
7 Lukas Muellauer
8 Broby Leeds (USA)
9 Marco Ladner (AUT)
10 Joel Gisler (SUI)
Full results
