Russ Henshaw in action at Copper Mountain Photo: Sarah Brunson/U.S. Freeskiing Slopestyle skier Russ Henshaw has continued his strong season with a third place in the Copper Mountain World Cup in the United States.
The podium finish has provided Henshaw with enough points to move into the world’s number two ranking.
Competing in an extremely high quality 16-man final, which included a number of local athletes using the event to secure team selection for next February’s Sochi Olympic Winter Games, the 23-year-old NSWIS athleten finished on the podium beside the winning Norwegian Andreas Haatveit and Nicholas Goepper from the United States.
A heavy dump of fresh snow in the last 24 hours made conditions challenging, prompting Henshaw to deliver two runs that he described as “solid” as opposed to having a high degree of difficulty.
Henshaw’s first run earned him 80.40 point, putting him in seventh place, with Goepper heading the leaders’ board on 89.20
However, the Australian’s competitive spirit kicked in prompting him to turn up the heat in his final run of the day, which saw him post a score of 87.80 points, giving him his second podium finish in a week. He also finished third in the prestigious Dew Tour last weekend in Breckenridge.
Henshaw said that while he was pleased to grab the bronze medal, which is the third time he has stood on a World Cup podium, the event was not his best performance of the season.
“It was super tough conditions today so I basically stuck to doing a run I knew I could do,” Henshaw said.
“I think today was more about doing a solid run rather than doing the absolute hardest run I could do.
“The conditions were tough so to even be able to put a run together felt great.
“We have had a lot of fresh snow over the last 24h and this made the course super slow which meant it was really difficult to make it over the jumps.”
This result has encouraged Henshaw to miss the World Cup events remaining before the Sochi qualification cut off date of January 20.
In the women's event AIS / VIS skier Anna Segal finished in 29th and fellow Aussie Annabel Blake was 26th. Both were unable to qualify for the final which was won by Canadian Dara Howell, American Darian Stevens was second and third went to American Grete Eliassen.
The podium finish has provided Henshaw with enough points to move into the world’s number two ranking.
Competing in an extremely high quality 16-man final, which included a number of local athletes using the event to secure team selection for next February’s Sochi Olympic Winter Games, the 23-year-old NSWIS athleten finished on the podium beside the winning Norwegian Andreas Haatveit and Nicholas Goepper from the United States.
A heavy dump of fresh snow in the last 24 hours made conditions challenging, prompting Henshaw to deliver two runs that he described as “solid” as opposed to having a high degree of difficulty.
Henshaw’s first run earned him 80.40 point, putting him in seventh place, with Goepper heading the leaders’ board on 89.20
However, the Australian’s competitive spirit kicked in prompting him to turn up the heat in his final run of the day, which saw him post a score of 87.80 points, giving him his second podium finish in a week. He also finished third in the prestigious Dew Tour last weekend in Breckenridge.
Henshaw said that while he was pleased to grab the bronze medal, which is the third time he has stood on a World Cup podium, the event was not his best performance of the season.
“It was super tough conditions today so I basically stuck to doing a run I knew I could do,” Henshaw said.
“I think today was more about doing a solid run rather than doing the absolute hardest run I could do.
“The conditions were tough so to even be able to put a run together felt great.
“We have had a lot of fresh snow over the last 24h and this made the course super slow which meant it was really difficult to make it over the jumps.”
This result has encouraged Henshaw to miss the World Cup events remaining before the Sochi qualification cut off date of January 20.
In the women's event AIS / VIS skier Anna Segal finished in 29th and fellow Aussie Annabel Blake was 26th. Both were unable to qualify for the final which was won by Canadian Dara Howell, American Darian Stevens was second and third went to American Grete Eliassen.
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