The New Zealand freeskier Finn Bilous has finished fifth at the latest Slopestyle World Cup event in Italy, his best finish in a World Cup event.
"Following on from the Olympics in February I felt I still had more gas in the tank for the competition season, so I decided to do a couple more events and try to bank some good results," said the 18-year-old from Wanaka who was disappointed to miss out on the Olympic finals in Pyeongchang by just one place finishing 13th.
"Going into this event I wanted to give it my all and try to land my best run possible, leaving it all on the hill," he said.
Bilous stuck to his plan and emerged as the top qualifier in his heat on Wednesday 14 March.
"My training went well and I felt good going in to qualifications. I had a few bobbles on my first run so looked to improve on my second run. I landed it all clean and got a 91.80 which I was super pumped about and that made me feel confident going in to finals."
Finn Bilous competing in at the Seiser Alm World Cup Event in Italy. Photo: FIS/Mateusz Kielpinski
Bilous decided to use the same run for the 16-man final but struggled for speed on the jumps with fresh snow having fallen over night and warm temperatures adding to the challenge.
"I landed my first run well and scored an 88.40 placing me in second after run one. I went to change up my grabs on the second run, however, lacked speed in to the second jump, coming up short and crashing my second run."
"All in all I was happy with how today went and how I skied," he said.
"This was the final World Cup of the season and my best World Cup result yet so I'm stoked."
The event was won by American Nick Goepper with Swiss skier Andri Ragettli winning the overall season title.
-RNZ
