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NEWS:
In the women's division Nicola Thost took the first place spot without a doubt from anyone, after pulling three smooth runs in the finals. Local Stratton heroine Tricia Byrnes took second place with a huge smile on her face and third went to Canadian Tara Teigen.
The women's division seemed rather uneventful, as everyone knew who would win, leaving the true competition in the second and third slots. Tricia Byrnes, Tara Teigen, Barrett Christy, and Stine Brun Kjeldaas all rode hard hoping to win those spots, but in the end judges seemed to favor height in the finals of the women's division. Tricia and Tara booth had incredibly smooth, but basic runs, and for this consistency they were rewarded. Tricia definitely has been riding stronger than ever with her back to back spins and more height than ever before, so this second place spot at the Open was very appropriate.
After a fairly uneventful round of qualifiers where the most exciting performances came from Michael Michaelchuck, Todd Richards, and Adam Petraska, sixteen men were chosen to ride in the finals. Not among the list of names was Burton's very own wonderboy Terje Haakonsen or Salomon rider Daniel Franck, generally two of the most favored riders in international competitions.
Traditionally at the Open there is a qualifying round, then semi-qualifiers, and finals. In normal ISF competitions sixteen riders compete in the final round. This year however, twenty riders were included. While the judges official word was that four riders had been added due to the lack of semis-, there was little doubt in anyone's mind that Burton didn't think the Open would be complete without Terje Haakonsen.
Terje's lackluster performance, while maybe not totally obvious to the audience, was especially noted by the judges and the riders who have seen Terje perform at a much higher level before. Daniel also wasn't riding up to his normal par, and this was attributed to the competition burn out Daniel was experiencing, along with major shin splints.
Within minutes after the qualifying list of sixteen was announced, a second decision was made to include four more riders, bumping both Terje, Daniel, Rob Kingwill, and Jimi Scott into the finals (listen to our audio clips from both to learn more about what they thought about this decision). Upon first hearing that he had made finals, Terje's response was, "I don't make the finals and they still find a way to make me ride."
He didn't seemed surprised at the decision, but more true to his nature was annoyed by the whole thing. Daniel seemed indifferent to being added into the new mix of riders and basically told SOL that he was glad he could be part of Burton's solution to Terje not being in their well-promoted event, regardless of the questionable ISF legality of it all. Also brought into the finals from the new additions was Rob Kingwill.
After the first round neither Todd, Terje, nor Daniel had the crowd going like Canadian rider Michaelchuck, who was charging hard in his first-ever U.S. Open. Todd Richards, however, performed like he usually does with flawless precision in the first round, but was scored low. While his new trick, a McTwist 900, won the audience over, the judges seemed to be sleeping during half of his run giving him a 36.2. And if they were asleep during Todd's runs, they definitely must have been confusing Terje for Adam Petraska (maybe this is because Adam has the same base graphic and that is all they were seeing with Adam's hugely impressive runs). Adam had some of the most technically superb runs of the day with incredible variation and height, while Terje took the lazier straight air line throwing in a nice Haakonflip at the bottom and a backside 720 with a yawn.
This is not to say that Terje didn't look smooth, because he did, however, it seemed like the judging was based more on who looked like they didn't care about the contest. In that division Terje took the prize with his performance, and that is exactly what it was to him, a performance. He seemed to have more fun the previous day in practice challenging Michaelchuck to one hitters, than in the true contest on Saturday. To punctuate this point Terje grabbed the microphone at the awards and announced that Michaelchuck was the winner of the U.S. Open.
While there is often controversy over who should've won, this year was clearly a strange contest. This is not to discredit Rob Kingwill, who definitely gave the judges what they wanted with good variation and impressive air at the top and bottom of the halfpipe, but Rob's runs didn't seem to create the enthusiasm that Michaelchuck's did. But we all know that enthusiasm isn't necessarily what wins a contest, with Terje being a perfect example of that.
For Rob Kingwill this win was probably one of the best ever for him, in spite of the controversy surrounding it. "I was really happy to finally land three runs in a row without falling," said a smiling Rob Kingwill upon hearing that he won. He was obviously as surprised about the judging as everyone, but he didn't say no to the 25K and the trophy that was handed to him after all was said and done. Kingwill is not a stranger to the podium, but over the last few weeks he seemed to be having a little trouble in contests.
Amidst all of the chaos and surprise over the outcome, there were some excellent runs by newcomers to the U.S. Open finals. Greg Goulet from Idaho made the finals for his first time, as did Chad Otterstrom, who also gave the audience a good show. Roger Hjelmstadstuen was managing to get some incredible height at the bottom of the halfpipe on his 720s and Seth Wescott pretty much stomped three really clean, graceful runs. Bertrand Denervaud, one of the most multi talented competitors who has seen probably more Open's then anyone else there, took 12th and Daniel Migneault took 20th in his first try at the U.S.Open.
While the whole contest seemed to be kind of blanketed with unease due to the judging and sudden change in the rules, it was still the Open, so at the very least everyone enjoyed competing together and seeing the most progressive halfpipe riding known to snowboarders. And if anything was learned out of this year, it was that contests are prone to injustice, just like anything else in life. Next year the U.S. Open will probably have a different feel to it once again, as Burton will hopefully feel the aftermath from this one, and make changes accordingly to ensure that the Open is a true "open" contest and not a Burtonfest.
OTHER NEWS US Open Day Two: Fog City Sat. (Mar. 21 @ 8:13:AM est) Super G Cancelled Due To Weather Fri. (Mar. 20 @ 10:02:PM est) Pipe Riders Rule During Practice Fri. (Mar. 20 @ 8:47:AM est) Zangerl and Rauter Take Duel Slalom Thu. (Mar. 19 @ 9:18:PM est) The 16th Annual US Open Snowboarding Championships - Schedule of Events Thu. (Mar. 19 @ 8:42:AM est)
US OPEN PHOTO SPECIAL:
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US OPEN NAVIGATION:
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