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Iain McGregor/Stuff
Lucia Georgalli on her way to winning the junior world championships title at Cardrona Alpine Resort.
Teenager Lucia Georgalli became the first New Zealander to win a snowboard junior world championship at the Winter Games at Cardrona near Queenstown on Wednesday.
The 16-year-old won gold, beating Fanny Chiesa Piantanida of Italy and Ally Hickman of Australia who joined Georgalli on the podium.
“It feels amazing, pretty cool to get my runs down and I am so stoked. I didn’t know if I was going to do a chill second run or step up my run, but I decided to go for a new competition run and I landed it,” she said.
Georgalli took a convincing lead with her first run, which remained the top scoring run throughout the finals, until she topped her own score.
Dropping into her second run Georgalli knew she had secured the title, but rather than taking a victory lap she showed her competitive mindset and upped her run.
She scored a 91.00, putting her over 10 points ahead of her nearest competitor.
Her run consisted of technical switch rail tricks in the top section, then a solid jump section that included three different 720 rotations, scoring highly on the variety and difficulty scale.
Winter Games NZ
Lucia Georgalli of New Zealand (centre) wins the snowboard junior world championship title.
The men’s snowboard finals field was incredibly strong and included the current Big Air and Halfpipe overall world champions, Taiga Hasegawa of Japan and Chaeun Lee of Korea.
The 17-year-old Hasegawa secured the lead on his final run, claiming the only score in the 90s for the snowboard men.
Cameron Spalding of Canada was second and another Japanese rider Yuto Miyamura rounded out the podium.
There was another New Zealander on the podium in the freeski slopestyle junior world championship , with Mischa Thomas finishing third.
Muriel Mohr, 16, of Germany took the win with her blinder of a second run being rewarded highly by the judges.
She was joined on the podium by top seed qualifier Flora Tabanelli of Italy and Thomas, in her first FIS event.
“My day went really well, I am really happy with how I skied. Coming third means a lot at the junior world champs, the feeling is indescribable. The support from the Kiwis has been amazing.”
The freeski men also saved the best to last, with top qualifier Charlie Beatty of Canada winning gold.
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