Just days after recovering from COVID-19, New Zealand’s Nico Porteous has claimed victory at the Freeski Halfpipe World Cup in California.
The 20-year-old reigning world champion produced a brilliant performance at Mammoth Mountain on Sunday (NZ time) in what was a maiden World Cup triumph and also an ideal tune-up ahead of next month’s Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Porteous had last week tested positive for COVID, along with older brother Miguel and Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, which forced the trio out of the World Cup round in Calgary, Canada.
But, back on the skis, the Hamilton-born, Wanaka-based man who remains New Zealand’s youngest-ever Olympic medallist thanks to his bronze at Pyeongchang as a 16-year-old in 2018, swiftly gave a reminder of all his class.
Having opened the World Cup season with a silver medal in Colorado last month, Porteous went one better in the season closer, winning with a sensational second run in the final which had been pushed back a day due to high winds.
A bobble on landing had Porteous eighth after his first run, with a score of 69.50, but he proceeded to make up for it big time on his second attempt.
Coming out swinging, Porteous landed the biggest trick of the day, not once, but twice, as he laced together back-to-back double 1620s and netted a whopping 97.00 to surge to the lead.
Porteous was delighted with the way he was able to bounce back following his early wobbles and said it was a timely boost of belief as he eyes up the opportunity to become New Zealand’s first Winter Olympics gold medallist.
“It was pretty tough, the last few competitions I haven’t skied at my best, so the bobble in run one was a bit frustrating, to be honest,” he said.
“I spoke with my coach Tommy [Pyatt] at the bottom and we decided it was all or nothing, so I should attempt that run again and just do my best.
“It gives me a lot of confidence going into Beijing, I was concerned that I wasn’t quite where I thought I was, so to get the win today is really epic.”
The three other Kiwis in the 34-man final also managed top-eight finishes, with Miguel Porteous fifth on 88.00, and career-bests for Ben Harrington (sixth on 85.00) and Gustav Legnavsky (eighth on 74.25).
Harrington, along with Finn Bilous, will also be in action on Monday (NZ time), in qualifying for the men’s freeski slopestyle event.
