Ashley Battersby crowned Queen at Suzuki Nine Queens in Austria – Freeskiing News
America’s professional freeskier Ashley Battersby walked away with top honours from the latest edition of Suzuki Nine Queens contest that wrapped up at Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis in Austria this past weekend.
Switzerland’s Eveline Bhend secured the runner-up position, whereas Canada’s Kaya Turski took third place to round out the podium.
Brain-child of the event organiser Nick Zacek, Nine Queens played host to a number of top female freeskiers from around the world in an action-packed and fun-filled week. Putting filming, photography and progressive riding on exciting features, the themed
event was far more than just competing for top honours.
However, there was a reward for the biggest standout during the big air contest at the event site, motivating the female freeskiers to push themselves even harder to pull off something that would leave the judges truly impressed.
The 24-year-old Battersby has been working hard on her game, adding new tricks to her arsenal while grooming the existing ones even further at the same time. The atmosphere during Nine Queens aided her in adding a new exquisite manoeuvre to her bag of tricks,
a switch 1080 mute grab.
Successfully execution of the spectacular trick on the Chateau-inspired 65-foot kicker left no doubt in the mind of the judges that the Chicago-based freeskier deserved to be crowned Queen at the latest edition of Suzuki Nine Queens.
“I tried that trick last year at Nine Queens for the first time but wasn't able to land it,” Battersby said after earning the top honours. “I'm stoked to have finally landed it this year.”
The 30-year-old Bhend remained pretty impressive throughout the week as well, working hard on grooming her skills. After a week-long session, she managed to land a clean misty 900, the first-ever to be landed by a woman. Her accomplishment served to earn
her the second spot in the big air event.
Turski, multiple-time Winter X Games gold medallist, is considered to be one of the most dominant female freeskier in the sport. Not content to stay out of spotlight for too long, the 23-year-old Montreal-based freeskier unloaded her version of a switch
1080 to claim third place at Suzuki Nine Queens.
It turned out to be yet another exciting year of Nine Queens, making significant contribution to the progression of the sport while adding the element of fun to it at the same time.
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