Lake Wanaka, New Zealand – Canada opened the 2010 FIS Snowboard Junior World Championships Saturday with a podium in women’s snowboard slopestyle. USA moved four athletes into the finals of the men’s and women’s slopestyle with Ryan Stassel (Anchorage, Alaska) and Caty O’Connor (Auburn, Calif.) spearheading the team in ninth and sixth, respectively. Norway’s Staale Sandbech and Finland’s Enni Rukajarvi won gold.nThree U.S. men qualified for finals, the most from any country. Stassel led the crew in ninth finishing in front of Paul Brichta (Burnsville, Minn.) and Nicholas Sibayan (Wrightwood, Calif.) in 10th and 11th, respectively. Julien Beaulieu, of Lac Beauport, Quebec, posted Canada’s top result, finishing in seventh position.

The men’s contest was topped by Sandbech, scoring a 42.00, two points ahead of silver medalist Finland’s Ville Paumola. Belarus’s Seppe Smits landed the final spot on the podium in third.

Samm Denena, of Orrilia, Ontario, who has been competing since 2007, took the bronze medal for Canada in the women’s competiton. O’Connor, the lone U.S. female representative in the finals, finished the day in sixth. Rukajarvi clinched gold scoring a 41.10. Slovenia’s Urska Pribosic took second.

The World Juniors snowboarding athletes will be on the slopes again Sunday for men and women’s snowboardcross with the event switching locations to Cardrona, New Zealand.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
2010 FIS Snowboard Junior World Championships
Snow Park, New Zealand
August 21, 2010

Men’s Slopestyle
1. Staale Sandbech, Norway, 42.00
2. Ville Paumola, Finland, 40.20
3. Seppe Smits, Belarus, 39.50
4. De Dimi Jong, Netherlands, 39.20
5. Benjamin Comber, New Zealand 36.6

Women’s Slopestyle
1. Enni Rukajarvi, Finland, 41.10
2. Urska Pribosic, Slovenia, 38.3
3. Samm Denena, Orrilia, ON, Canada, 30.50
4. Rebecca Torr, New Zealand, 26.70
5. Kari Orpsal Maeland, Norway, 25.60