Lake Wanaka, New Zealand – The final day of the 5Star Burton New Zealand Open went off Saturday featuring men’s and women’s halfpipe finals at Cardrona Alpine Resort.nThe weather cleared from the previous day and the sky popped blue, making for a perfect day up on the hill for the event. The women took to the pipe first and American Kelly Clark, of West Dover, Vt., dominated the field for the second consecutive year, finishing in first place. The men’s competition kicked off after the women and it was a heated battle for a podium spot. In the end, it was Iouri Podladtchikov of Switzerland who rose to the top and took home the title. Clark and Podladtchikov both walked away with 850 Swatch TTR Ranking points and a cool NZ$6,000 in their pockets.
The women’s finals featured some heavy competition and Clark was the rider to beat as she displayed her signature amplitude and smooth style. Clark set the bar high with her first run and was able to maintain her lead all day, claiming the first place spot.
“Kelly Clark dominated with a perfect frontside 900, a backside 540 and a pair of flawless 720s,” said U.S. Snowboarding Rookie Coach Spencer Tamblyn.
Hot on Clark’s heels was up and coming Spanish rider, Queralt Castellet, who has been making some waves in the women’s halfpipe scene. Queralt put together a great run and took home second place leaving Japanese rider, Soko Yamaoka in third. Although Sina Candrian of Switzerland placed 16th in Saturday’s halfpipe, she moved into the TTR tour lead because she also placed 7th in Friday’s slopestyle competition. Since not very many women competed in both disciplines, Candrian was able to nab the current tour leader position.
The men dropped into the pipe in the afternoon and perfect weather conditions continued for the men’s field. Padladchikov had a little trouble on his first run but came back to take the top spot with his second drop, putting down a huge crippler, double McTwist 1260, frontside 1080 tailgrab, and a Cab 720. With Saturday’s result, Podladtchikov moved into World No. 2 in the Swatch TTR Rankings sitting behind current leader, Gjermund Braaten of Norway.
Japanese riders were out in full force and young 14-year-old ripper, Taku Hiraoka, gave the men’s field a run for their money. He threw down an excellent run to take second place. And American rider Louie Vito, of Salt Lake City, Utah, stepped it up with his second run to take home the third spot on the podium.
“It was nice just to land a run, especially since I haven’t done any of those tricks since March,” said Vito. “Getting a third heading into the season feels alright, but not as good as a first would have.”
Vito had a strong second run unleashing his effortless looking double-corks. He started his second run off big with a frontside 1080 double-cork, Cab100 double-cork, double crippler, backside 900 and frontside corked 900 to post 88.04 on the scoreboard.
Saturday’s halfpipe competition marked the debut of the new Snowboard Live Scoring system (SLS), which takes a new approach to judging halfpipe runs. Instead of looking at a rider’s overall run like the Overall Impression system, the new SLS system scores each hit in a rider’s run which are then combined with an overall flow score in order to provide a clear definition of how the judges arrive at a final score. The SLS system seemed to be well received by the riders.
With the Burton New Zealand Open in the bag, the TTR World Snowboard Tour will head across the Tasman sea to Falls Creek, Australia, for the 4Star Stylewars competition which will kick off on Aug. 22. The tour will then head back to New Zealand for the 3Star Billabong Bro Down, scheduled for Sept. 11. The TTR Tour will then take a quick break before winter returns to the northern hemisphere.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
Burton New Zealand Open
Cardrona, New Zealand – August 14, 2010
Men’s Halfpipe
1. Iouri Podladtchikov, Switzerland, 93.70
2. Taku Hiraoka, Japan, 89.35
3. Louie Vito, Sandy, UT, 88.04
4. Ryo Aono, Japan, 87.84
5. Jarret Thomas, Golden, CO, 84.92
Women’s Halfpipe
1. Kelly Clark, West Dover, VT, 88.70
2. Queralt Castellet, Spain, 82.45
3. Soko Yamaoka, Japan, 76.84
4. Kaitlyn Farrington, Sun Valley, ID, 74.24
5. Rana Okada, Japan, 73.72