<div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Lightning blue skies, a 360° white mountain panorama, thousands of fans and winter sports enthusiasts, and a perfectly groomed slopestyle course is the impressive backdrop at Crap Sogn Gion above Laax, just right for the performances of the snowboard pros. The twenty finalists show progressive runs at this first FIS Snowboard World Cup of the season. Tricks such as cab double 9 on the shark fins, back to back 1620s on kickers, backside 5 in the quarter – breathtaking, skywards, simply stylish.</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">US rider <strong>Julia Marino</strong>, who also won the LAAX OPEN in 2020, mastered the seven features best in the women's category. <strong>Annika Morgan</strong> from Germany came in second place, achieving her best World Cup result: “I just can't believe it! It was totally crazy for me today, as I was so nervous. It's unbelievable that it ended up being my best slopestyle result.” <strong>Anna Gasser</strong>, the two-time Olympic champion in Big Air, came third. None of the three are newcomers on the LAAX OPEN podium.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yet the men’s podium did herald new arrivals: Canadian<strong> Liam Brearley</strong> receives the highest score of the day, 89.93 points, thus taking his first LAAX OPEN title and following in the big footsteps of his compatriots Mark McMorris, Seb Toutant and Max Parrot. <strong>Ryoma Kimata</strong> from Japan and <strong>Cameron Spalding</strong> (CAN) follow in second and third place.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Highly-rated teenagers <strong>Kokomo Murase</strong> (JPN) and <strong>Mia Brookes</strong> (GBR) finish the LAAX OPEN 2024 in fifth and eighth place respectively.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All results can be found here: <a href="https://open.laax.com/results" target="_blank">https://open.laax.com/results</a></div>