Kiwi snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott has continued her outbreak season with another win after claiming gold in the women's slopestyle at the prestigious US Open in Colorado this morning.
The 17-year-old entered today's final as the top qualifier after finding top form in Thursday's preliminaries and she was quick off the mark once again today, claiming the No.1 spot after her first run with a score of 82.55.
Sadowski-Synnott's opening run included a switch boardslide 270 out, a switch 50-50 switch backside 180 stalefish out, a 50-50 backside 180 stalefish out, an insane switch backside 900 stalefish, a frontside 720 mule and a backside 540 stalefish to finish.
The Kiwi tried to improve in her second run but bailed out midway through. Despite the fall, her first run score remained the highest entering the final round.
Things became nerve-racking when the Kiwi watched as Julia Marino appeared set to take the lead with a brilliant run but the American bailed on her final landing, giving Sadowski-Synnott the gold with a run to spare.
Sadowski-Synnott said today's win was a childhood dream come true.
"It means so much," Sadowski-Synnott said.
"The US Open was one of the first competitions I watched when I started competing and I've just always wanted to go when I started snowboarding."
Today's win continues a snowballing season for Sadowski-Synnott who adds her US Open gold to a World Championships title from last month in Utah and a Winter X Games gold from Colorado in January. All three wins have been in the slopestyle event but she also claimed a silver at the X Games in the Big Air.
Sadowski-Synnott also broke New Zealand's 26-year medal drought at last year's Winter Olympics in PyeongChang when she claimed bronze in the Big Air.
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