New Zealander Kendal Brown won the Burton Canadian Open womens halfpipe yesterday. But the big news for Australia is that Olympian Ben Mates placed 7th. That’s got to be a confidence booster with the Winter Olympics only a week away. Great work Benny! You can see highlights from the halfpipe here. The slopestyle finals are tomorrow and you can watch them at Go211. Full press release below.
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International Olympians Sweep Podium at Canadian Open Halfpipe Finals
CALGARY, AB (February 6, 2010) – Six Olympians from four countries swept the podium today during the halfpipe competition at the second annual Burton Canadian Open. It was picturesque day in Calgary for the internationally diverse field of riders who were competing for a piece of the $25,000 prize purse, in addition to valuable points towards the Burton Global Open Series and the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour titles.
The women were first to drop and Kiwi Kendall Brown took the top spot in semis with a run that started out with an alley-oop tai-pan, followed by back-to-back 540’s, into a stylish method, finishing with a difficult air to fakie melon, which scored her an impressive 88.17. Canadians Mercedes Nicoll and Sarah Conrad were hot on her heels, taking second and third respectively.
In finals Conrad stepped it up and threw down a great run that featured back to back 5’s, but Kendall regained her lead with her second run. Brown started off her winning run with a lein air, followed by a backside 540 mute, into frontside 540 stalefish, into backside air, finishing with an air-to-fakie. Kendall had this to say of today’s win, “This was a great competition; it was so awesome to have such a good pipe and so much time to train over the week. It’s my first Canadian Open and I will definitely be back next year.”
It was then the men’s turn to drop-in to the 22’ halfpipe at Canada Olympic park and Iouri “I-Pod” Podladtchikov, hot off of a silver medal win at the X-Games, stuck his second run and took first in semis with a solid score of 86.67. I-Pod’s run started off with a huge fronside air, followed by a backside 900 melon, into a frontside 1080 tailgrab, Cab 720 indy, finishing with a frontside 540 backside grab. Fighting Podladtchikov for first were Ben Watts (USA) and Dustin Craven (CAN), who both impressed the judges with their style and amplitude.
Canadian Justin Lamoureux took the lead early in finals with his clean spins and technical runs, while Markus Malin wowed the crowd with a double cork 1080 truckdriver. But it was I-Pod who took the win after stomping his second run in finals, starting off with a Cab 1080 double cork mute, followed by a frontside 1080 tailgrab, into a Cab 720 mute, frontside 540 tailgrab, finishing with a stylish backside air. “I am in the best condition of my life,” said Iouri. “I have had a great season so far. I have already had some podiums in the contest circuit this year, but of course taking first is the sweetest place to be.”
The Canadian Open wraps up tomorrow with men’s and women’s slopestyle finals, tune-in to Go211.com and watch it all happen live, the action starts at 1:00pm EST.
An overall male and female Burton Global Open Series Champion will be crowned at the final event, the US Open Snowboarding Championships held in Stratton, Vermont. The top three men and women will take home equal prize money, with first place winning $50,000, second place $30,000 and third place taking home $20,000.
With 850 Swatch TTR points for the winners at this 5Star event on the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour, Iouri Podladtchikov (SUI) bumped down his fellow countryman Christian Haller into World No. 3 and now sits in second. Also the women saw a new rider taking over the No. 2 spot with Lisa Wiik (NOR) taking seventh in the finals. Wiik could take over the TTR Tour lead tomorrow with a good result in the slopestyle format. She is facing a tight battle with Sina Candrian (SUI) trying to get back into that World No. 2 spot and Cilka Sadar (SLO) also looking to improve her rank in the Swatch TTR Top 5.
If you can’t make it to Canada Olympic Park, watch the semifinals and finals live on Go211.com, where webcasts and highlights of the competitions will also be available for on-demand viewing once the event is over. The 2010 Canadian Open halfpipe and slopestyle action can be seen on The Score on February 28 at 4:00 p.m. EST.
Results Halfpipe Women
1 Kendall Brown NZL
2 Sarah Conrad CAN
3 Mercedes Nicoll CAN
Results Halfpipe Men
1 Iouri Podladtchikov SUI
2 Justin Lamoureux CAN
3 Markus Malin FIN
Burton would like to thank WinSport Canada, Go211.com, Paul Mitchell, Amp Energy, Samsung, Travel Alberta, Tourism Calgary, Calgary Hotel Association, Alberta Lottery Fund, Snowboard Canada Magazine, Transworld Snowboarding Magazine, Sennheiser and Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour for their support of the Canadian Open.
About the Burton Global Open Series
The Burton Global Open Series events are the pinnacle snowboarding events of the season. Founded by Jake Burton, the Opens have grown from grassroots events to global spectacles attracting tens of thousands of spectators and riders from around the world. Since the beginning, the Opens have been driven by riders, for riders evolving with snowboarding and riders’ needs over the years. With events held in New Zealand, Europe, Canada, Japan and the United States, the Opens set the standard for snowboarding events around the globe. For more information, visit www.opensnowboarding.com.
About the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour
Founded by Terje Haakonsen and industry innovators in 2002, the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour is a non-profit, rider-driven organization with the mission to create the highest quality competitive snowboard environment in the world, using authenticity, accessibility and innovation as guiding principles. Since its foundation, the Swatch TTR Tour has been developing into the most respected snowboard tour worldwide featuring global grass root and key independent freestyle snowboarding events over a ten-month period from Southern to Northern Hemisphere locations. Events are rated via a 1-through-6Star system, with points allocated accordingly, a 6Star event holds the highest (1000 Swatch TTR points). Any rider participating in these events, from up-and-coming to professional talent, earns ranking points and a position on the Swatch TTR World Ranking List. The top male and female rider at the end of the season are crowned Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour Champion.
About GO211.com
GO211.com is the leading community and video site for action sports created for and by athletes and enthusiasts. It’s the place to go for behind-the-scenes videos, blogs, and photos from pro athletes and featured contributors along with other action sports fans. GO211.com is proud to offer a broad range of exclusive content submitted directly from the athletes and is proud to host interactive live webcasts of the top events in surf, skate, snow and BMX. The current GO211 Pro Team roster includes: Hannah Teter, Nate Yeomans, Torah Bright, Mikes Losness, Kelly Clark, Jack Mitrani, Andy Finch, Donny Robinson, Christian Hosoi, and Holly Beck, among others.
About WinSport Canada
For more than 21 years, WinSport Canada’s disciplined business focus has successfully built upon the foundation of the 1988 Olympic legacy assets. WinSport Canada has become Canada’s leader in developing and sustaining world-caliber winter sport training facilities. WinSport Canada owns and operates Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, the Bill Warren Training Centre in Canmore, the Beckie Scott High Performance Training Centre on Haig Glacier, Camp Green on Farnham Glacier and funds two-thirds of the operating costs of the Olympic Oval in Calgary. These facilities give Canadian high performance athletes the ability to become the best in the world and recreational athletes the chance to discover and develop in sport. For more information about WinSport Canada, please visit www.WinSportCanada.ca.
