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Sunday, 23 December 2001

Brecken-fridge, notorious for its freezing conditions and bullet proof landings proved against the norm today for the kick off of the vans triple crown. First up was the slope style and conditions couldn’t have been better.

Top qualifier leading into today’s women's finals was Jessica Dalpiaz who threw down a sweet run consisting of a backside 5 and 50/50 the rainbow rail, looked set to hold the lead but to her surprise and everyone else’s, had the gold ripped right out of reach when Kim Bohnsak kick started her run with a frontside 180 to switch boardslide and stomped the rest of her run clean, with Katrina Voutilanin in 2nd stomping sweet backflips and Sara Oestoberg having a clean run mixing it up and putting the rails to good use. Australia’s Emily Thomas was riding super solid but it seemed it wasn’t to be, finishing in a credible 13th position.

“ I felt I was riding really well, the course was difficult to get a good balance of rails whilst still hitting the bigger kickers, on the day it seemed that the judges were more impressed with action on the rails, which gives me amp to go ride the rails when I get back home to whistler” said Emily Thomas.

The men’s was taken out by Californian Todd Richards a solid run with the trademark 900 put him into the lead. Young rippers Travis Rice and JJ Thomas took 2nd and 3rd respectively.