Snowmass World Cup a confidence boost for Henshaw

Courtesy: www.owia.org

Slopestyle skier Russ Henshaw has missed out on this weekend’s 16-man World Cup final at Snowmass, Colorado after placing 34th in Thursday’s qualification runs. 
 
Nevertheless, the Sochi Olympian remains positive as he now prepares for the next World Cup at Mammoth Mountain, California saying that Snowmass has given him “a real confidence boost”.
 
The 27-year-old said that he was “stoked” to have finished the day with a best score of 79.33 following his second run.
 
“I landed everything and yeah, I don’t know, I took a bit of a chance with the rails at the top trying to be creative and I don’t think the judges really liked that bit I was happy with it,” he said.
 
“I put together a run in training that I was super stoked on and then had a little bobble on the first run, the speed kind of changed coming into the second bump and I went smaller than I thought I was going to, so [I] missed my grab and the score reflected that.”
 
The 2017 Slopestyle Skiing World Cup bronze medallist hasn’t had an ideal start to the season after sustaining a back injury at the first World Cup in Cardrona, New Zealand which impeded his qualification round.
 
In Font Romeu, France, a combination of poor conditions during training and a head cold then saw Henshaw finish in 55th place.
 
“[I’m] feeling good, this was a real confidence boost,” he said.
 
“Last two events I’ve had a bit of trouble – New Zealand I put out my back, unfortunately, which kind of sucked and in Font Romeu I had a bit of a cold and I really didn’t like the course there.”
 
Fellow Aussies Nic Stevens and Ryley Lucas were also on the Slopestyle course on Thursday with Stevens finishing the day in 46th place and Lucas 58th.
 
The next Slopestyle World Cup will take place at Mammoth Mountain, California from the 19-20 of January.
 
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David Barden
OWIA