Zoi Sadowski-Synnott wins second gold in women’s snowboard slopestyle
New Zealander Zoi Sadowski-Synnott opened the day by winning her second X Games Snowboard Slopestyle gold medal. She showed technical prowess in the rails at the top of the course with combos like her backside bluntside to backside 180 sameway and her boardslide pretzel, both in Run 1. Her switch backside double cork 900 stalefish in Run 3 was the biggest trick of the contest. She took an early lead in Run 1 and never gave it up, with top-to-bottom runs in three of her four passes.
Japan’s Kokomo Murase bettered her Aspen 2020 bronze performance with a Slopestyle silver and Canada’s Brooke Voigt earned her first X Games medal with bronze.
Alice Robinson 4th at Junior World Champs Super-G
NZ Alpine ski racer Alice Robinson (Queenstown) has finished in 4th place in Super-G at the FIS Alpine Junior World Ski Championships in Narvik, Norway. Find footage here
Alice had a strong run and had the green light at the first split but a small mistake midway down the course cost her precious time and she crossed the finish line in 3rd place before dropping to 4th by the end of the race.
Pampellone wins first Olympic qualifier
Kiwi light heavyweight boxer Jerome Pampellone is one step closer to the Tokyo Olympics after beating Japan’s Ren Umemura via split decision in the first round of Asian/Oceanian qualifying in Amman, Jordan on Tuesday (Wednesday NZ time).
The 23-year-old Aucklander is competing in the men’s 81kg category and the top five fighters from each weight division in qualifying will secure a place at the Olympics, starting in July.
The Aucklander is still a few victories shy of guaranteeing an Olympic berth and next fights the top seed, Kazakhstan’s Beksad Nurdauletov, the reigning men’s 81kg world champion and world No 1, so he has a huge obstacle to overcome.
Football Fern Sarah Gregorius retires after penalty shoot out win
Former Football Ferns captain Sarah Gregorius has announced her 100th match for the side was her last.
The striker brought up the milestone in this morning’s win over Belgium in New Zealand’s opening match of the Algarve Cup in Portugal.
The side prevailed 7-6 on penalties, after the match finished 1-1 after 90 minutes.
Gregorius’ final kick in her final game for New Zealand was from the spot in the shootout victory.
Mens eight and quad to contest last chance Olympic qualifier
Hamish Bond has been given a crack at a third consecutive Olympic medal.
Bond has been named in the New Zealand men’s eight to contest the final Olympic qualification regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland in May.
Rowing NZ has elected to send the men’s eight and men’s quad crews to the ‘last chance’ regatta, after both boats narrowly missed qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics at last year’s world rowing championships.
Both boats need to finish in the top two in Lucerne to qualify for Tokyo. Rowing NZ currently has nine boats qualified to compete in Tokyo.
If the men’s eight qualify for Tokyo, it would be a fourth Olympics appearance for Bond. He was part of the men’s coxless four at Beijing in 2008 and then won gold in the pair with Eric Murray at London 2012 and Rio 2016.
Tennis NZ appoints new High Performance Director
Tennis NZ has appointed Christophe Lambert to the role of High-Performance Director replacing Simon Rea who returned to Australia in January. Lambert has been Tennis New Zealand’s National coach for the past 23 months.
“There were 29 applicants for the role. Christophe was the standout candidate considering his significant previous experience and his alignment with the high performance and performance development philosophy implemented with Simon.” Tennis NZ CEO Julie Paterson said.
