Burton Open Half Pipe Final

Burton Open Halfpipe Final Cardrona, New Zealand – August 15th, 2009: The Swatch TTR 5Star Burton New Zealand Open came to a climactic close today with history making Halfpipe runs from one of the most heavy-hitting rider contingents the NZO has ever seen. US riders and former TTR World Champions Kelly Clark and Shaun White each bagged their first results and Halfpipe titles of the 09/10 season along with 850 TTR ranking points while fellow US pipe shred Mason Aguirre moved into the Tour Lead. While many riders locked in two results in New Zealand by competing in both the Slopestyle and Halfpipe, White only claimed one TTR result, moving him into World No. 10. Luke Mitrani’s second place moved him into World No. 15, while Kokubo’s third place finish bumped him into the TTR Top 30. After struggling slightly in yesterday’s Slopestyle with a fourteenth place finish, Mason Aguirre managed to bag enough points with a fourth in the pipe to move into Tour Lead ahead of now World No. 2 Sebastien Toutant (CAN). Charles Reid, also from Canada, holds on to TTR World No. 3. Japanese hero Kazuhiro Kokubo set the pace early on with a huge Mctwist off the first hit and massive spins in typical Japanese fashion. But as the riders continued to drop in, it quickly became apparent that double corks were the name of the game with a close battle opening up between Shaun White and Luke Mitrani for top spot on the podium. Similar to the top tier competition among the men, the women’s field saw a matchup build between Chinese rider Jiayu Liu and US pipe champion Kelly Clark. In 2008, Liu managed to beat out Clark in the New Zealand Pipe taking second place, but today in 2009 Clark put it all together to earn her first Title result of the season. Clark now sits as TTR World No. 7. Jiayu Liu now finds herself in the TTR Top 25 with a second place with Zhifeng Sun rounding out the NZO podium in third. Despite only finishing eighth in today’s Halfpipe contest, Jamie Anderson (USA) maintains her TTR Tour lead with her win in yesterday’s Slopestyle event. Norwegian rider Lisa Wiik moved up into World No.2 with Silvia Mittermueller of Germany sitting comfortably in World No. 3. With the Swatch TTR 5 Star Burton New Zealand Open complete, focus now switches over to the next Southern hemisphere event, the legendary 4Star Stylewars in Falls Creek, Australia taking place from August 24th to 28th, 2009. Head on over to ttrworldtour.com to read the freshest news, most detailed blogs, statistic-rich rankings and action packed video-highlights as the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour ventures into the 2009/2010 season.

Uploaded by Martynd, 2 years, 5 months ago