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Burton Australian Open

2008 Burton Australian Open Comes To A Close

Sound the didgeridoos, the 2008 Burton Australian Open has come to a close and Torstein Horgmo (NOR) and Jamie Anderson (USA) have come out on top, winning the men’s and women’s slopestyle competition today at Perisher Blue Resort. After a week of dodgy weather, the sun broke through this morning, illuminating the 400m long slopestyle course that featured a downrail, battleship rail and three massive kickers.

With a field comprised of an Olympic gold medalist, the men’s and women’s New Zealand Open slopestyle winners, two TTR World Champions, six Winter X-Games medalists and some of Australia’s best, the day promised some serious riding and it didn’t disappoint. While the standard was high in both the men’s and the women’s fields, both winners were stand outs with Torstein Horgmo nearly ten points clear of Danny Davis (USA) and Jamie Anderson an impressive 15 points clear of her nearest rival, Raewyn Reid (CAN).

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Horgmo’s $7,500 AUD winning run featured a fakie backside tail 270 on the downrail, into a switch 50/50 Cab 180 on the battleship, followed by a backside 720 melon, into a frontside 900 indy, finishing with a ridiculously big switch backside 1260 melon. “I feel really good right now,” said Torstein. “It’s crazy, I thought this course was so much fun, better than last year; you could do bigger tricks and have way more flow through the park. Everybody killed it today so I feel really fortunate to end up on top.”

Danny Davis landed 2nd place with a run that included back-to-back 900’s, riding away with $3,500 AUD. Eric Willet (USA) took home $1,500 AUD for his 3rd place finish, his winning run featured a switch backside 900 mute and frontside 1080 tailgrab.

Women’s slopestyle champion Jamie Anderson continued to be unstoppable in her pursuit for perfection with another podium win. She started her winning run with a tailpress on the downrail, followed by a noseslide-to-fakie on the battleship, sticking a switch backside 360 stalefish on the first kicker, into a Cab 540 mute on the second, finishing with an frontside 540 melon. “I am so stoked to win, it was a really fun day and we had great weather,” said Anderson. “The other girls were sweet; everyone was riding so well, it was an awesome day.”

Raewyn Reid had an impressive showing for the ladies with a backside lipslide on the downrail and a 50/50 frontside boardslide on the battleship, taking home 2nd place and $3,500 AUD. Kara Rennie (CAN) won $1,500 AUD and the third place title by styling it out on the rails with a backside lipslide and 50/50 to boardslide.

With the Burton Australian Open over, it’s on to the Canadian Open, taking place at CODA’s Canada Olympic Park in Calgary from December 1-7, 2008. The Canadian Open is the third stop on the 2008-2009 Burton Global Open Series. Jamie Anderson and Luke Mitrani are currently in the lead for the $100,000 Burton Global Open Series Championship title. The BGOS boasts the most lucrative cumulative prize purse in snowboarding – over $900,000 – with equal prize money to men and women

After today’s Swatch TTR 5Star slopestyle event, Jamie Anderson continues to defend her 2007/08 TTR World Tour Champion title, while Chas Guldemond maintains his tour lead. For more information, visit www.ttrworldtour.com.

RESULTS
1 Torstein Horgmo NOR DC 90.33 $7,500
2 Danny Davis USA BURTON 81.50 $3,000
3 Eric Willett USA VANS 79.50 $1,500
4 Chas Guldemond USA DC 79.00 $700
5 Kevin Pearce USA BURTON 78.00 $350
6 Mason Aguirre USA BURTON 77.67 $175

1 Jamie Anderson USA BILLABONG 96.17 $7,500
2 Raewyn Reid CAN DC 80.50 $3,500
3 Kara Rennie CAN NIKITA 63.83 $1,500

ADMIN

  • September 05 2008 | 989 views | 7 comments

Aguirre And Teter Take Burton Australian Open Pipe

Perisher Blue, Australia – September 4th, 2008: Despite the warm weather conditions competitors certainly managed to bring it all together for an impressive finale in the Swatch TTR 5Star Burton Australian Open Halfpipe. Mason Aguirre (USA) pushed it all the way through the session, overpowering a strong field of riders to claim his first TTR 5Star Event Title and 3rd result of the season. Hannah Teter (USA) made her triumphant return to the pipe scene, dominating the entire event to take both her first event result and title of the 08/09 season.

The men’s field was loaded with Title hopefuls and many riders looking to break into the TTR Top 10. Favored to excel from the get go was reigning 2008 Swatch TTR World Tour Champion Kevin Pearce (USA), who entered his first major competition in Perisher Blue since his World Title win at the 2008 Burton US Open Championships. Pearce finished 4th in the pipe to find a place in the TTR Top 20. Chas Guldemond (USA), who finished 5th behind Pearce, managed to stay on top of the Swatch TTR Rankings as Tour Leader, setting himself up handsomely for the upcoming Slopestyle showdown.

In third was Finland’s Markus Malin, who earned a spot on the podium with sick 7s, a huge BS 9 and always-stylish FS Air and heads into the Slopestyle as Swatch TTR World No. 6. US rider Luke Mitrani, currently TTR No. 4, put on a spectacular show with his mind-boggling amplitude in a slow pipe that made others struggle. His massive FS 9, tweaked Japan and jaw dropping Switch Double Backflip to Fakie amped up the contest considerably. Not to be outdone by the younger Mitrani brother, Mason Aguirre stole the show on his third run, nailing his Cab 10, FS 9, Chuck Flip and Alley-oop 7 to claim victory and a position just outside the TTR Top 10 at World No. 13.

Although many spectators were looking to Jamie Anderson for a repeat of her major success in New Zealand, a win in the Australian Pipe was not in the cards. Nevertheless, Anderson managed to stick a solid run for third place and further extend her already formidable lead as women’s Swatch TTR Tour Leader. Polish shredder Paulina Ligocka was the only rider to challenge first place rider Hannah Teter, putting up FS 7s and 9s complete with solid Methods and McTwists, but Teter’s dominance could not be outdone, locking in a FS 5 Stale, BS5 and Switch 7 to reach the top of the podium.

Attention now heads towards the upcoming Slopestyle competition that’ll have Guldemond and Anderson feeling the pressure despite their comfortable lead. The fight for the World No. 2 spot behind Chas is on with Janne Korpi’s Finish clean technicality and experience versus talent and energy from the youngsters Charles Reid (CAN) and Luke Mitrani (USA), both only 18 years of age. Switzerland’s Stephan Maurer rounds up the Swatch TTR Top 5 and certainly needs to style his tricks even harder to fight back a strong Euro force. Malin (FIN), Sörman (SWE) and Torstein Horgmo (NOR) all with Southern Hemisphere 3Star to 5Star podium results under their belts are certain to take this momentum to the Perisher Blue Slopestyle course tomorrow. And with the likes of Mason Aguirre, Mikkel Bang and current Swatch TTR World Champion Kevin Pearce lurking just outside the Top 10, the battle for the end of season prize money will be on downunder already.

Jamie Anderson, known for her buttery expertise in Slopestyle contests, will once again have Hannah Teter to deal with. Teter hopes to make the Women’s TTR Top 5 alongside Kimmy Fasani (USA) and Whistler local Kara Rennie (CAN), who could even jump into World No.2. With such an immense field of heavy hitters, expect an action-packed finale that’ll have you wishing the Northern-Hemisphere’s winter began next week.

RESULTS HALFPIPE MEN:

1 Mason Aguirre (USA)

2 Luke Mitrani (USA)

3 Markus Malin (FIN)

4 Kevin Pearce (USA)

5 Chas Guldemond (USA)

6 Danny Davis (USA)

7 Kosuke Hosokawa (JPN)

8 Jack Mitrani (USA)

9 Keir Dillon (USA)

10 Stephan Maurer (SUI)

HALFPIPE RESULTS WOMEN:

1 Hannah Teter (USA)

2 Paulina Ligocka (POL)

3 Jamie Anderson (USA)

4 Erin Tanner (AUS)

5 Lauren Staveley (AUS)

6 Kimmy Fasani (USA)

7 Alicia Barker (AUS)

8 Melanie Lappas (AUS)

9 Amber Arazny (AUS)

10 Jasmin Gallop (AUS)

ADMIN

  • September 05 2008 | 747 views | 2 comments

2008 Burton Australian Open Underway

Today saw the second day of the Burton Australian Open go down at Perisher Blue Resort, where men’s and women’s halfpipe qualifications took place. Athletes from all over the world were vying for a coveted spot in Thursday’s semi-finals and a chance to grab a piece of the $50,000 AUD prize purse.

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bengal

  • September 02 2008 | 711 views