This morning’s women’s slopestyle semi finals just went down, and although it wasn’t the most dramatic of events, Jenny Jones is through to the finals! She qualified with her first run but bested that with her second, landing a big cab 5, back 3 and the best 7 (frontside) of the day on the ‘Hot, Cool, Yours’ jumps.
Sarka ‘Shark Attack’ Pancochova qualified in first place so will be dropping fourth in the finals later this morning, she managed an impressive score of 90.50 with a front 5, switch back 5 and back 7 – easily the best run we saw today.
Swiss Sina Candrian grabbed the second spot and didn’t ever look in any doubt about making it through. Silje Norendal just made it through, holding on to a pretty sketchy second run that put her onto the bubble for most of the latter half of the competition. The judges added to her misery by taking their time announcing the scores, but she still managed a smile after.
The riders that seemed to be enjoying themselves the most were the ones that didn’t make it through; Aimee Fuller didn’t put her double back flip down but kept the stoke up nonetheless, even apologising to camera for being on so early in the morning. We appreciated that.
Our other smiley favourite was Rebecca ‘Possum’ Torr of NZ; none of the four Kiwis made it through to the finals but even as her eliminating scores were being announced she still was jumping and dancing in front of the (definitely not gay) purple Sochi banner. Thanks Possum!
Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the day was Christy Prior‘s no show – apparently she dinged herself in practice earlier so the audience was denied her potentially competition-smashing rail game.
Down and out too was rainbow glove wearing Cheryl Maas, she had arguably one of the best chances of making it to the finals but hooked up on the very first rail in her second run and that was that.
So on to the finals! They kick off at 9.15 UK with the start list below so see you on our live blog.
Sochi 2014 Women’s Slopestyle Finals – Start List
Silje Norendal
Jenny Jones
Sina Candrian
Sarka Pancochova
Karly Shorr
Elena Koenz
Jamie Anderson
Anna Gasser
Enni Rukajarvi
Spencer O’Brien
Torah Bright
Isabel Derungs
