Okay, so Shaun White and Kelly Clark won the FIS Snowboard World Cup at Cypress yesterday in a pre-run of what will probably happen at the 2010 Winter Olympics. That’s great an all, but we just couldn’t pass up this headline from The Toronto Star:
Red-hot Tomato flies to World Cup victory.
Looks like the sports writing nickname game just had the bar raised.
[Link: Toronto Star]
CYPRESS MOUNTAIN, BC (Feb. 14) – Olympic gold medalists Shaun White (Carlsbad, CA) and Kelly Clark (Mt. Snow, VT) took to what will be the 2010 Olympic pipe Saturday to win a World Cup during test events for the Games at Cypress Mountain, BC.
“Just putting together a whole run is always a hard thing to do,” White said. “I like the pipe, it was fun and I was on point enough to keep my first run, get a good score and sit back and wait for everyone to do their stuff.”
White threw a frontside melon, backside 9, frontside 1080 stale, cab 1080 nose, alleyoop rodeo to land in first. Ryoh Aono of Japan was second and Switzerland’s Iouri Podladtchikov was third.
According to the great White, there’s something to be said for being at Cypress and getting to know the lay of the land.
“I think this helps a lot. There’s something about going to events where it’s the same mountains, the same halfpipe, same scenery – it becomes this familiar thing where you can relax,” White said. “Since I’ve already been here I’m really excited for the Olympics to be here.”
Clark led the way for the women for the second weekend in a row with Jiayu Liu of China second and Teter third.
“This is probably the deepest field of athletes we have seen this year from any event. There were some incredible snowboarders here today,” Clark said.
Clark put down a backside 5, frontside 7, cab 3, frontside 5, backside air to win the event.
According to Clark, pipe conditions were such that one had to be on their A game in order to ride it perfectly.
“Today was the best day for the halfpipe. It got a little bit more vert. It’s still a bit soft in the flat bottom. You have to be really technically on top of your game because any edging will slow you down a lot,” Clark said.
Teter was happy to be able to start off her road to the Olympics with a bronze medal in the halfpipe.
“I really liked it [the pipe] my third place is a really good way to start out my experience in this Olympic pipe,” Teter said.
The alpine portion of the World Cup at Cypress Mountain was canceled late Saturday night due to unsuitable course conditions.
“The coaches as well as the jury agreed to this. We want a higher standard of a race course,” U.S. Snowboarding Alpine Head Coach Steve Persons said. “We are disappointed that SBX was a day away from us because it’s not enough time to get the proper quality of course.”
Organizers hope to reschedule and have a double event at the Stoneham World Cup, which runs Feb. 18-22, but an official decision has yet to be made.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
2009 LG SNOWBOARD FIS WORLD CUP
Cypress Mountain, BC – Feb. 14, 2009
Halfpipe
1. Shaun White, Carlsbad, CA, 47.3
2. Ryoh Aono, Japan, 44.8
3. Iouri Podladtchikov, Switzerland, 44.3
4. Kazuumi Fujita, Japan, 40.5
5. Justin Lamoureux, Canada, 40,0
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10. Steve Fisher, Breckenridge, CA, 33.9
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19. Greg Bretz, Mammoth Lakes, CA, 34.9
24. Louie Vito, Sandy, UT, 33.7
37. Scotty Lago, Seabrook, NH, 30.1
44. Elijah Teter, South Lake Tahoe, CA, 28.2
58. Dylan Bidez, Minturn, CO, 22.7
Women
1. Kelly Clark, Mt. Snow, CO, 42.6
2. Jiayu Liu, China, 39.0
3. Hannah Teter, Belmont, VT, 38.8
4. Gretchen Bleiler, Aspen, CO, 37.0
5. Sophir Rodriguez, France, 34.4
–
8. Ellery Hollingsworth, Stratton, VT, 33.2
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16. Elena Hight, South Lake Tahoe, CA, 33.0
18. Kaitlyn Farrington, Sun Valley, ID, 31.2
