White Wins World Cup HP Opener

Press Release

August 26 2009
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All eyes were on Shaun White (Carlsbad, CA) to double cork his way to another win on Wednesday and the 2006 Olympic gold medalist did not disappoint as he grabbed the top spot during the season’s first World Cup competition in New Zealand. He was joined on the podium steps by fellow Games hardware owners Kelly Clark (Mt. Snow, VT) and Gretchen Bleiler (Aspen, CO), who were second and third.

White pulled a straight air, backside 900, frontside 720, cab double cork 1080, to a front 1080 in his first run, and a straight air, backside 500, frontside 720, cab double cork 1080, front double cork 1080 on his second run for his second win in the southern hemisphere this month. The first was at the Burton New Zealand Open where he also won after landing of a double double-corked run.

“I show up here and I didn’t plan on competing. I actually postponed my flight home so that I could stay and ride longer and get my tricks down because this year is the big one,” White said. “All the people that are probably going to be at the Olympics are here, so the win was amazing.”

White had originally planned on making a quick exit after the Open, but threw his name in the hat for the World Cup at the last minute in order to test out his double-cork laden runs on a panel of rather important judges - the Olympic panel.

“It felt great to break these new tricks out in front of the judges because they’re the ones who are going to be there in the end to decide who is riding the best during the Olympics. I didn’t want a situation where I’m throwing a new trick that’s innovative, but that they don’t know how to judge,” White said.

Thankfully, according to U.S. Snowboarding’s Bud Keene who coached White during the 2006 Olympics and will again coach him through the Games this season, the panel of judges knew exactly what the hype was all about.

“There’s nobody out there doing it as big and as well, or as perfectly executed and as stylish [as Shaun]. He has total command of these new tricks and they’re very impressed with that,” Keene said.

The women of U.S. Snowboarding were in their element with Clark and Bleiler laying claim on the second and third podium spots, while Jiayu Liu of China got the win.

Clark, just off her season’s first win at the Open, put down a frontside air, backside 540, frontside 720, cab 720, frontside 540 for her podium.

Bleiler followed things up with a frontside air, backside 540, frontside 540, cab 720, to straight air for third.

“It’s hard to think of this contest as the first contest of the season because it’s August, but it’s great to compete against everyone in the world and get third,” Bleiler said. “I’m looking at it as good practice. The summer training is where I’m polishing everything I need to polish so that I go into the season at 100 percent and ready to throw my runs at any given time.”

Ellery Hollingsworth (Stratton, VT) also had a killer day as the new high school grad sealed a solid run for a fifth-place finish to round out the top-10 results for U.S. women.

The halfpipe World Cup hits the brakes until its next competition Nov. 4 in Switzerland, but snowboardcross kicks its World Cup tour off Sept. 12 in Argentina.

OFFICIAL RESULTS

2010 LG SNOWBOARD FIS WORLD CUP

Aug. 26, 2009

Halfpipe

Men

1. Shaun White, Carlsbad, CA, 47.1

2. Iouri Podladtchikov, Switzerland, 44.4

3. Kazuhiro Kokubo, Japan, 43.2

4. Markus Malin, Finland, 42.1

5. Kohhei Kudoh, Japan, 40.7

13. Mason Aguirre, Duluth, MN, 27.7

15. Scotty Lago, Seabrook, NH, 12.6