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Posted on Wednesday August 26th at 9:41 p.m.
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Bray and Brown were the only New Zealand snowboarding team members to make it through to the final day of competition at the FIS World Cup event.
Snowboarding veteran Bray said the women's field for the FIS World Cup, which doubles as a Winter Olympic qualification event, was one of the toughest she had ever competed in.
Bray and Brown have already earned New Zealand two qualification positions at next year's Winter Olympics in Vancouver, but whether they will be chosen for selection depends on their results at Cardrona today and a USA Grand Prix event in December.
The pair will line up for this morning's women's semifinals, after they qualified as the 14th and 15th-ranked female riders, yesterday.
"It was tough out there in the conditions, but I'm happy with my performance. I've been battling a bit of a cold, so I was saving myself a bit for the semis," Bray said.
Kendall's brother Mitchell was the best performed of the New Zealand male snowboarders, competing through the pain of a broken wrist sustained during a crash in Cardrona's half pipe at the New Zealand Burton Open, 10 days ago.
Mitchell Brown finished as the 17th-ranked male rider in the second heat of the 68-strong combined men's field.
His best run of 27.4 points, in his second attempt, was not good enough to make it into the top 10 qualifiers and progress through to the semifinals.
James Hamilton, of Auckland, struggled in the conditions and could not successfully land tricks in both his runs and placed near the bottom of the field in the 32-strong second heat.
Ben Stewart, of Whangamata, was also unlucky, crashing in his second run to ruin ruin his chances of qualifying, while youngster Mac James, of Wanaka, made up the numbers to finish as the last-placed qualifier in the first heat.
SOURCE: Otago Daily Times
ARTICLE: By Matthew Haggart