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NEWS:
The competition was as good as the weather on Sunday. With blue skies overhead and a solid halfpipe, Seth Wescott from the east coast started off the men's finals with a solid run. Wescott is a former Coloradan who recently moved from the powder of the west to Vermont to train in the halfpipe. While a move east is not a common one, Wescott apparently has Olympic dreams. However, in Sunday's halfpipe competition, while he rode smooth, his technical ability wasn't enough to catch up with the top two riders, Ross Powers and Guillaume Chastagnol. But then again, no one seemed to be able to touch these two who seemed to be in a friendly one-uping war with amazing riding all through the finals.
John Sommers dropped in next, and while Sommers is often a strong conteder in the halfpipe, he hasn't stepped up to the podium yet this season. Sunday he definitely had some height, but didn't seem to be as stable as he usually is. With such tough competition, landing everything was crucial, and this reflected in the scoring.
Bjorn Leines dropped in next with tons of floaty Leines style, but was lacking in consistency through the whole halfpipe and couldn't hold together a whole run. Catching the lip of the pipe seemed to be a standard part of his runs.
Erik Leines, the younger Leines brother, was looking incredibly solid for most of his runs, but also seemed to be catching up more than usual on the lip. Judges seemed to be more focused on the smooth lines, than the unusual tricks that Erik was stashing up his sleeve. Frank Wells had one incredibly impressive run that made it easy to see why he made it to the finals, but unfortunately was lacking in the technical tricks that the top placers were offering, and so he ended up with sixth.
Seth Wescott, the third place winner of the boardercross from the previous day was finding both the height and the speed necessary to hold him in the top five, but there was definitely a grabbing problem. In his spins he wasn't grabbing and these days not grabbing on a spin, a former FIS practice, pretty much knocks points down quickly on tricks of this nature.
Jeff Brushie was back on course this weekend and riding better than ever. While his riding seemed to be a little more spectacular in the practice and during the week when his amazing consistency showed through. While everyone else was complaining earlier in the week about the halfpipe, Brushie busted out of the pipe and got some height that few were able to attain. Jeff has been quite the contest dog this season and his results have been particularly good considering he seemed to slow up on contests in previouse years. His renewed interest in riding the contest format really seemed to stoke the crowd, who all recognized Brushie and cheered him on.
Todd Richards pulled out all of his old tricks, but nothing seemed to charm the judges today, not even back to back spins. "To bad I was riding so shitty today," was about all Todd had to say on the halfpipe that was described by Shannon Dunn as one ot the best one's she has ever ridden. Todd fell in his third run, which probably didn't help his score much.
The heavy competition came in with France's Guillaume Chastagnol and U.S. rider Ross Powers. The two both seemed focused but were smiling throughout the halfpipe. Ross Powers was the seventh rider to drop in. He had a super smooth beginning with amazing amplitude and no apparent sketches. This run must have inspired Guillaume, who dropped in next and busted one of the biggest straight airs seen in the halfpipe on Sunday.
"It was a perfect pipe today," said Guillaume. "Everything was perfect and I had some magic wax. I don't know how it could have been any better." The smiling Frenchman seemed more than content, and perhaps even a little shocked to receive a silver medal, however his runs were without a doubt, some of the most spectacular of the weekend. His amazing amplitude and variety in tricks must have made the judging difficult, however, unlike Ross Guillaume saw a slight bit of sketch in his landings and occasionally landed a bit too low on the halfpipe.
Ross, on the other hand put together three spectacular runs where he dropped into the pipe with a huge straight air, went immediately into a couple of spins with grabs, then a straight air with a double poke. The double poke was a crowd pleasure and they let the judges know with their applause after Ross' run.
After all was said and done there was some question by riders as to why Guillaume didn't get first. Some claimed it was because the X Games officials wanted an American to win, but really Ross won the gold fair and square by just riding with confidence and stomping everything.
"My day started off pretty bad," said Powers. "I wasn't riding that well. Then the snow began softening the snow and that made a lot of difference."
The awards ceremony took place in the late afternoon where 18-year-old Ross Powers was not only awarded with his second gold medal of the weekend, but he also got the keys to a brand new Volkswagon bug for being the best overall athlete. When asked if he thought he would be getting the car he replied, "People told me I would be the one getting the car, but I didn't believe it. I am really surprised," he told the audience.
To read more about Ross Powers first X Games win, as well as other coverage, click here.
OTHER NEWS HALFPIPE: Burnside Is Back And Better Than Ever Mon. (Jan. 19 @ 10:29:PM est) BX: Dixon Takes Women's Boarder X Sun. (Jan. 18 @ 2:33:PM est) BX: Palm Takes Boarder X Again Sat. (Jan. 17 @ 10:39:AM est) THE X FILES--Special ESPN Edition of the Snowblower. Fri. (Jan. 16 @ 5:15:PM est) SLOPESTYLE: Powers And Waara Mine Gold Fri. (Jan. 16 @ 5:13:PM est) What's Happening? Thu. (Jan. 15 @ 10:24:AM est) What's Extreme Anyway? Thu. (Jan. 15 @ 10:22:AM est)
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