Photos: Bucholz/FIS

Georgia (the Eurasian one, not the swing state) welcomes the FIS Freestyle world for the coming weeks and after a chronically wind-delayed series of qualification events, the finals got started bright and early this morning. Hurricane Bakuriani had subsided somewhat, revealing a decent slopestyle course. The opening double rail feature (two tubes back to back) led in to three smooth-looking but not huge jumps, which were followed by two cannon rail features and then a final jib feature that combined a tube to QP and two down rail options.

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Women:

Run 1:

It was a tough start for the women, and Gulia Tanno was the first to put down a run that was both somewhat clean and competitive. Provisionally only second due but it was sick to see her back in Finals after a horrible run of injuries. Ruby Andrews didn't quite have the speed down but her run showed promise, and style too. Sarah Hoefflin was so close to a mega banger with a perfect switch dub 10 mute on the final hit, tech rails but she pretty much ran out of speed on the final feature. She still stomped her tricks though, so the score dock down to 65 seemed incredibly harsh. Tess Ledeux took a heavy hit on a final hit switch dub, having stomped a perfect forward dub 12 of the previous hit. Megan Oldham went switch dub 9 to dub 10 on the bottom two jumps but she did come off the final rail pretty early, somehow still scoring 80. Johanne Killi put it down, left 9 blunt (capped), switch left 7 safety, switch right dub 10 japan. 270 to switch at the bottom was swag too and she took the lead. Mathilde Gremaud threw down on the rails (right2on2out + sw2cont2 combo on the first tubes, forward dub 10 on the first jump, right bio 9, switch left 7 mute, switch on front 4 mute, 5050 the qp tube and then left lip 2 cont 2 on the final down) taking a clear lead. One of the steeziest women's runs ever too.

Run 2:

With the way the course was set up, in combination with the team quotas for World Championships, you could see the big gulf in ability between today's top 7 or so women and the rest. Germany's 16-year-old Muriel Mohr looks like a big hope for the future though, with solid technique and clean grabs. Anni Karava brought the steeze with both ways cork 7s and it was super cool to see someone carving to control their speed rather than speed checking or pizzaing. Sarah Hoefflin sent it for the win but unfortunately went too big on the first of two switch dubs. Sick 4off, 4on combo on the top tubes though. Tess Ledeux couldn't figure out the speed on her switch dub 12 and came up short again, with less catastrophic consequences. Megan Oldham tidied her run up a lot, right 9 tail, switch left dub 9, huge left dub 10, bs 630 on the cannon and the 2 on 2 off. Not enough to overtake Mathilde but enough for 2nd. Johanne Killi, unfortunately, crashed, leaving Mathilde with a swiss flag-wielding victory lap and a solid W to add to her collection.

Podium:

Gold: Mathilde Gremaud

Silver: Megan Oldham

Bronze: Johanne Killi

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Men:

Run 1:

Super sick to see Elias Syrja back in the finals at a major event but his run didn't quite go to plan. Switch 180 5050 180 was a nice change though. Max Moffat was the first to put down a banger: 270 nose drag on to the second tube was sick, left dub 14 to right dub 16 from the weird narrow takeoff to switch right triple 12 safety, plenty of boost too but only scored an 82. Also, were poles lost in transit? Ben Barclay put down a clean one but both his big jump tricks were leftside, and the grab on the dub 14 was lost but found. With Colby and AHall not traveling for world champs, Hunter Henderson was the first American hope on-course but there were some little bobbles.

Fabian Boesch put down the best slopestyle run we've seen from him in a while. Spinny AF on the top tubes, switch right dub misty 12, left dub 16 tail to switch left dub 18 safety... 2p2 at the bottom was a nice touch too. Not sure why he didn't take the lead comp-wise but he did sneak into second behind Max. Cody Laplante put one down too, super steezy but missed the grab on his switch dub 14 mute on review. Evan McEachran was the first to hit the transfer gap rail that I hadn't even realised was there, but he went down on a switch dub 18. Andri stomped both ways dub 16s, with a switch left dub 12 double mute in between them, switch on huge cork 4 japan on the boost rail, 2 on front swap cont 2 on the final rail and, to his credit, got the double mute even with poles. Seriously guys, Andri is making you look bad rn. Enough for the lead, but only 84 points. Birk got provisional third despite opening up in the air, twice, not sure about that.

Run 2:

Elias Syrja came through with the glimmer of hope we love to see in a slope comp, throwing a switch butter flat 3 (switch butter to flat 3 bring back to 180) but couldn't keep things clean overall. Valentin Morel put one down with steeze, always a relief, and the nollie 270 onto the final rail was sick but he did put a hand down earlier in the run. Max Moffat, unfortunately, missed a grab, but the rest of his run was sick again. Christian Nummedal, was 40 degrees of pretz 2 away from perfect, having ripped a binding out crashing on run one. Huge, slow rotated big spins and great style though. Albatross steeze. Judges gave him the lead though, with an 87. He did go to the moon so I can dig it. Hugo Burvall stomped a dope 5050 360 out and then his heel ripped out on what looked like a clean enough nosebutter dub 12. Heartbreaker.

Ben Barclay cleaned up his run and capped perfect blunt on his dub 14 but perhaps a touch low on the tech, final feature was just 2 to switch. Hunter Henderson improved too and sent an absolutely huge capped switch dub 16 blunt but he went for a grab spinning off the cannon and missed, judges hate that. The moral of the story? Don't try. Evan McEachran... it's been a while but he put down a banger that I thought for sure was going to the podium. Not sure what was missing really but he ended up sixth. Sebastian Scherve put a solid run down too, both ways dub bio 14 mutes were clean but it was scrappy in places. He still went ahead of Evan though. Andri had an uncharacteristic crash leaving the door wide open, and Birk Ruud sprinted through it with a clean final run. Very technical and not very pretty in places, but the lip 4 to switch at the bottom was crazy and it's hard to argue with a dub bio 18 in slope. Should it have scored what it did? Up to you guys.

Podium:

Gold: Birk Ruud

Silver: Christian Nummedal

Bronze: Andri Ragettli

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Full Results:

Women:

Men (top 12):

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Replay:

Use Switzerland VPN: https://www.srf.ch/play/tv/-/video/ski-freestyle-wm-in-bakuriani-slopestyle-final-frauen--maenner