Wanaka snowboarding star Zoi Sadowski Synnott has earned the top score in the slopestyle semi finals at the Burton US Open 2020 (Burton Open). 

The semi finals competition attracted a field of 32 men and 16 women competing on perfectly sculpted features in an updated slopestyle course design and the women kicked off the first day of pro competition with a stacked field battling it out in ideal sunshine conditions.

Zoi, the defending Burton Open champion, earned the top score of 75.15 on her first run.

“She linked up a switch boardslide into a 50-50 frontside 360 out on the upper urban features, into a backside 540 stalefish and a switch backside 540 stalefish on the two transition features,” a Burton Open representative said. 

“She followed with a 50-50 wildcat on the high-speed rails, and finished with a huge frontside 720 mute grab on the final kicker.”

Zoi said she really liked the updated course.

“I’m really down with how the quarterpipes are set up on the course so you have to hit them on a specific side - it really shows who the best all-around rider is,” she said. 

Zoi plans to step up her run further in the upcoming finals, saying: “I have a lot more in the bag”.

Anna Gasser (AUT) took second with a score of 71.35 and Hailey Langland (USA) took the third spot with a score of 69.55.

The men’s competition took place in the afternoon. It was won by Dusty Henricksen (USA), with second going to Darcy Sharpe (CAN) and a close third to Staale Sandbech (NOR).

Two days ago Wanaka youngster Campbell Melville Ives, 13-years-old, earned a bronze at the Jump Jam event.

The Burton Open is snowboarding’s longest running pre-eminent snowboarding competition, featuring the best snowboarders in the world competing over the course of the last week of February. 

PHOTO: Supplied