Coady leads NSWIS trio to top 10 World Cup finishes in Austria

New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) scholarship holders Tess Coady, Mela Stalker and Valentino Guseli have all delivered top‑10 snowboard performances in the world cup slopestyle final at Absolute Park in Flachau, Austria.

Coady led the Australian charge in fourth place, narrowly missing the podium while Guseli impressed in the qualification round, winning the first heat with a score of 74.98 points on his second run.

In the women’s qualifiers, Coady progressed to the final in seventh place with a score of 67.51, while Stalker secured the final qualifying spot in tenth on 61.16 points.

Competing in challenging weather conditions, Coady (pictured above) opened the women’s best‑of‑two‑run final with the third‑highest score of the round, posting 65.46 points.

She was unable to improve on her second run and ultimately finished fourth. Stalker finished ninth, with her best score of 34.10 coming on her second run.

In the men’s final, Guseli’s strongest score came in the opening run, where he recorded 59.23 points. Unable to improve on his second attempt, he finished in ninth place overall, his best slopestyle result of the season.

Outside the finals, Joshua Robertson‑Hahn recorded a personal best world cup slopestyle result, finishing 18th, while Jesse Parkinson was 48th.

The final snowboard park & pipe world cup events of the season will take place in the Corvatsch park in Silvaplana, Switzerland.

Halfpipe qualifying is scheduled for March 25, followed by finals on March 28, while slopestyle qualifying will be held across March 26 and 27, then the final on March 29.

Guseli (pictured above) will contest both events in Switzerland and currently sits second on both the world cup halfpipe and overall park & pipe standings.

In halfpipe, he has accumulated 350 points, trailing Olympic gold medallist Yuto Totsuka by 46 points. Guseli also sits second in the overall standings, just 17 points behind Totsuka heading into the final events of the season.

OWIA

Photo: Luc Bagouet/FIS