Kiwi Cam Melville Ives can hold his head high despite missing out on a medal in the men’s snowboard halfpipe final at Livigno Snow Park.
The 19-year-old finished 12th in the final with a top score of 43 from his first run, which included a backside double-cork alley-oop and afrontside triple cork 1440, but it is a case of what might have been for the Wānaka local as he failed to secure a clean run.
Competing in his first Olympics, Melville Ives left everything out on the table, where he produced two runs that could have put him in medal contention but ran out of halfpipe on both occasions.
Speaking to Sky Sport, Melville Ives knew that had he landed a good run, he would have been in the medal mix.
“It’s a tough one,” he said. “I’m really sad to not land that, been working on that run for a long time, so it’s a bit sad.
“The pipe was so good today everyone was on some crazy stuff. I had the best training ever, landed my full run in training with like the cab triple, double alley-oop, rodeo back 12, front triple switch, double alley-oop rodeo, landed it perfect in training.
Cam Melville Ives during his first run in the men's snowboard halfpipe final. Photo / Photosport
“First time ever in my life landing that run. And then [I] just couldn’t put it down. A bit gutting really, but it’s all right.”
One thing Melville Ives wasn’t lacking was height, constantly getting above 5m high on his jumps.
But he felt he had to be conservative because of the 197m length of the pipe and would love the chance to go bigger.
“It’s towards the long end of most pipes, but still the way that snowboarding’s progressing nowadays, the pipes need to get longer,” he said.
“For me personally, like I can’t go as big as I want to go because I won’t have that fifth hit. So if the pipe was 20m longer, I’d be able to go 5-10 foot [1.5-3m] bigger and that’d be so sick.”
Japan’s Yuto Totsuka took out gold with a score of 95, with Australian Scotty James winning silver and Ryusei Yamada claiming bronze.
The New Zealander’s twin brother Finley Melville Ives will be looking to claim a medal in the men’s ski halfpipe event.
