The Kiwi medal streak at the Aspen X Games continues, with Wānaka’s Rocco Jamieson (18) bringing home the bronze medal in the men’s snowboard big air at his X Games debut.
The field was hugely competitive, with a score in the 90’s in playoffs not enough to guarantee a ticket to the finals. The level of riding was unbelievably progressive, in playoffs we saw the first 2160 rotation (six full times around) landed in competition, and then it was landed two more times with different variation of take-off direction by two more athletes.
As the youngest athlete in the field, Jamieson stood out from the crowd with his unmistakable style, stomping a frontside 1800 bloody Dracula grab in his first run of playoffs. The judges loved it and rewarded him with a 94.00 for that trick, which saw him go through to finals in second place.
Finals delivered what we have come to expect from X Games, unrivalled progression for the sport. Hiroto Ogiwara of Japan landed a 2340 mute grab for the first time in history, an incredible six and half full rotations and was awarded a 97.33 which was the top score of the day.
Jamieson put down his frontside 1800 bloody Dracula grab once again, with a clean take off and stomped landing. For his second run, he dug even deeper and attempted a 2160 of his own but didn’t quite stick the landing.
Nevertheless, an exceptional achievement from Jamieson, holding his own against the best in the world and walking away from his X Games debut with the bronze medal.
Ogiwara of Japan took the win with his historical run and his compatriot, 2024 X Games gold medallist Taiga Hasegawa, finished in silver medal position.
Before they had even handed out the big air medals, Jamieson dropped straight into the snowboard knuckle huck event, finishing in fourth to round out an exceptionally successful debut for Jamieson and a historical day at X Games for Team NZ.
The action continues tomorrow in Colorado, with Kiwi’s competing in women’s ski slopestyle, men’s ski big air and men’s ski superpipe.
28 days ago