Wanaka's Lucia Georgalli is leading the charge for the next generation of New Zealand snow sport athletes, winning gold in the Junior Park and Pipe World Championship Snowboard Slopestyle finals at Cardrona today.
The 16-year-old grew up 30 minutes away from the slopes of Cardrona, but now stands atop of the mountain, bagging her first Junior World Championship crown.
Georgalli made a huge statement in her first run, impressing judges with a score of 85.25.
It ended up being a celebratory second run with none of the 11 other snowboarders from around the world coming close to the Kiwi's score.
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Without any pressure, Georgalli went for it in her final run, pulling off a competition-high score of 91.00.
“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.” said Georgalli
Italy's Fanny Piantanida Chiesa finished second with a score of 77.25 while Australian Ally Hickman won bronze with 66.50.
Georgalli's breakthrough win all but secures her qualification for the Youth Olympic Games in South Korea next year, the NZOC confirms selection in December. Georgalli will also earn an automatic spot at the World Cup events.
After an exciting morning, the action continued with the Freeski Slopestyle Junior World Championship finals in the afternoon where Auckland's Mischa Thomas won bronze in the Women's event.
This was Thomas’ first FIS event, and she was over the moon with her results; “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 Kiwi’s has been amazing.”
The women’s final was a nail biter, with many athletes leaving it to the second run to show the judges what they were capable of. Muriel Mohr of Germany took the win with her blinder of a second run being rewarded highly by the judges.
Mohr dropped into her second and final run in bronze medal position, with the intention to shake up the podium. She upped the technicality of her rails and included a K-Fed on the second rail feature. A switch bio 900 and a right side 720 with her grabs locked in catapulted the 16-year-old German into first.
She was joined on the podium by top seed qualifier Flora Tabanelli of Italy and Thomas of New Zealand.
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