NSWIS snowboarder Tess Coady has finished in fifth at the slopestyle World Cup event in Aspen, USA, ending a successful competition block highlighted by a bronze medal at the World Championships earlier in the week.

After qualifying for finals in eighth place, the 20-year-old from Melbourne had her best score in the first run scoring 60.15 points. Coady was unable to improve her score in the final two runs, finishing in fifth place.

Recording victory was Anna Gasser of Austria, with American Hailey Langland in second place and Enni Rukajarvi in third.

NSWIS riders Matt Cox and Valentino Guseli who, were both drawn to compete in heat number two for the men’s qualification round.

Both riders missed out on the top-six required to advanced to the final with Cox ranked 13th after scoring 67 points in his first qualification run and Guseli 18th in his World Cup slopestyle debut with 52 points in his second run. The final ranking were 27th for Cox and 35th for Guseli.

Marcus Kleveland of Norway took the win in the men's event, with Red Gerard of the USA in second position and third place going to Canadian Mark McMorris.

The slopestyle athletes will now head to Silvaplana, Switzerland, for the World Cup final on March 28.

Going into the final, Coady is ranked fourth on the World Cup standings with 105 points, 40 points behind Anna Gasser in first place, 35 points behind second ranked Jamie Anderson of the USA and 7 points behind Hailey Langland in third. IMAGE: A smiling Tess Coady after a successful week in Aspen © Chris Hocking

NSWIS snowboarder Tess Coady has had the best big air result of her career, finishing in fifth place at the World Championships in Aspen, USA.

The format for the big air final was three jumps per athlete, with the best two scores counting toward your total score.

Coady’s highest scoring jump was in run number one, with her switch backside 900 with stalefish grab scoring 81.75 points. Coady’s second highest score was in the third run, scoring 70 points for her frontside double 900 with indy grab. The two jump total for Coady was 151.75 points, giving her a final ranking of fifth.

The gold medal with a score of 177.75 points went to Canadian Laurie Blouin, with 2021 slopestyle World Champion Zoi Sadowski Synnott of New Zealand in second place with 176.75 points and Japanese rider Miyabi Onitsuka in third place with 174.75 points.

In the men’s final Matt Cox's two highest scoring jumps were his second jump, a frontside 1080 with indy grab scoring 46.75 points and on his third jump a cab 1260 with stalefish grab scoring 64.75 points. This gave Cox a two jump score of 111.50 and a final ranking of tenth.

Canada took the first two places in the men’s event with Mark McMorris of Canada in first place and Max Parrot in second, Norwegian Marcus Kleveland finished in third.

IMAGE: Matt Cox going big in Aspen © Chris Hocking

Tess Coady has taken bronze in Aspen, USA, joining the legendary Torah Bright as the only Australian snowboarder to win a World Championship medal in slopestyle.
 
In the best of three run final, the NSWIS snowboarder was super consistent, putting down good scores in each of her competition runs, with her highest score of 78.13 coming in run number two.
 
Coady’s run included a smooth rail section at the top of the course followed by the jump section with a switch backside 900, backside 720 and a frontside 720 with a double grab.
 
Taking the win was New Zealander Zoi Sadowski-Synnott with a score of 85.95 points, with two time Olympic champion Jamie Anderson of the USA in second place scoring 81.10 points.
 
“I am so stocked, it’s been a really great week here”, said the 2017 World Junior Champion from Melbourne.
 
“I was psyched when I made finals, but to come out with a podium is the best, it’s the cherry on top.
 
“It’s a tough field, the women are on another level at the moment and I am really excited to be a part of that.”
 
The medal is Coady’s second of the season and the fourth major medal of her career (1 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze).
 
Coady's NSWIS teammate Matt Cox placed 17th in his heat, missing out on the top eight required to reach the men's final.

NSWIS snowboard athletes Tess Coady and Matt Cox have taken part in their first World Cup event of the 2020/21 season, with a big air competition held with an all star field in Kreischberg, Austria.
 
In the qualifying round, Tess Coady placed 22nd with a two jump total score of 96.60 points, missing out on the six woman final in her first World Cup big air start since November 2019.
 
Zoi Sadowski Synnott of New Zealand took the win in the women’s event, with Kokomo Murase of Japan finishing second, with Anna Gasser of Austria in third place.
 
The men’s field for qualifying was split into two heats, with Matt Cox taking part in heat number one. He placed 13th in his heat with a two jump score of 123.60 points, placing him in an overall position of 27th.
 
The men’s event was won by Canadian Max Parrot, with Swedish rider Sven Thorgren in second and Mons Roisland in third.
 
The next event for the park and pipe athletes is in Laax, Switzerland with a slopestyle event scheduled on January 22 and halfpipe on January 23.

In the halfpipe event, Scotty James will be competing for the first time this season, and young gun Valentino Guseli also making his World Cup debut. Emily Arthur will also be in action in the women’s event.
 
Coady and Cox will feature again, this time in the slopestyle discipline.
 
IMAGE: Matt Cox flying high in Kreischberg © Matt Cox Instagram

Triple World Champion Scotty James relocated to Europe in August and has been training on snow over the past months preparing for the northern hemisphere winter.
 
Tess Coady, Matt Cox and Valentino Guseli all spent time in Perisher during the Australian winter, before travelling to Europe at the end of September for on snow training camps at air bag and glacier based terrain parks in Austria and Switzerland.
 
The Copper Mountain World Cup event scheduled for December was cancelled due to COVID restrictions in Colorado, and postponing the first events of the season until January

NSWIS Snowboarder Matt Cox has finished the big air World Cup season ranked 11th in the world, after a number of impressive performances in the four big air events this season.

At the final stop in Atlanta, USA, SunTrust Park, home of the Atlanta Braves in Major League Baseball was transformed into a spectacular street style venue.

Cox finished in 20th place in Atlanta, his third top-20 performance of the big air season, with the other highlights being a fifth place in Cardrona, New Zealand, in August, and a tenth place finish last week in Beijing, China.Cox said despite the score, he was happy with his performance overall and is looking ahead to the next competition already. 
“I was super hyped, I landed both my runs.  I didn’t quite get the score I wanted which is a little bit of bummer but it’s on to the next,” said Cox.
“So this BIg Air here kind of wraps everything up for the season and we’re on to slopestyle next should be awesome.
“The venue has been incredible, we’re at a Baseball stadium… we got to sit in the locker room where the baseball players sit and walk out through the dug out into the venue,” he said.

With the big air tour now complete, Cox will not turn his attention back to the slopestyle discipline

IMAGE - The big air setup at SunTrust Park, Atlanta © FIS Snowboard

NSWIS Snowboarder Tess Coady has made a successful return to competition, finishing in 11th place at the Big Air World Cup in Modena, Italy.
 
The Modena Big Air was a scaffold ramp setup, with riders getting two jumps in the qualification round, with the highest of the two jumps counting for advancing to the six woman or 10 man final.
 
In her first event back since sustaining a knee injury at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, Coady put down her highest scoring jump first up, with a score of 58 points putting her in 11th place.
 
In the men's event, NSWIS rider Matthew Cox was unable to back up his recent breakthrough fifth place finish at the World Cup in Cardona, New Zealand, finishing in 41st place.
 
The next competition on the schedule for Cox is the Big Air event in Beijing, China, with Coady looking at competing in January at the World Cup Slopestyle event in Seiser Aim, Italy.