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INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS AT BURTON NZ OPEN SLOPESTYLE

Friday, 1 August 2008

It may have been a powder day in the rest of New Zealand but the attention was firmly focused on Snow Park NZ’s terrain for the slopestyle finals of the Burton NZ Open. With a field comprised of X-Games gold medalists, TTR leaders, and some of New Zealand’s best, the day promised some serious riding and it didn’t disappoint despite more testing weather conditions.

While the standard was high in both the men’s and the women’s, both winners were stand out in their field with Mikkel Bang (NOR) over 10 points clear of Charles Reid (CAN) and Jamie Anderson (USA) an incredible 24 points clear of her nearest rival, Cheryl Maas (NED).

Even though the weather deteriorated throughout the day, the riders kept stepping up and it was Bang’s final run that earned him the title spot.  “I didn’t have any expectations when I set out this morning, the weather wasn’t great but the snow was good and soft and it turned into a really good day!” he said.

His winning run featured a switch frontslide boardslide, Cab 540 nose tap, cab 720 mute, switch backside 900 mute, 270 on the rail, finishing with an alley-opp wallride.

In the women’s field head judge, Jason Grossi, said the results reflected Anderson’s outstanding riding ability. “Jamie dominated from the very beginning, from her amplitude to her spins. Her rail tricks were real clean and technical and she was riding stronger than some of the men including an alley-oop wallride on the final feature.”

It was also Anderson’s final run that achieved her highest score, starting off with a noseslide, frontside 180 nose bonk, Cab 5, backside 5, gap to tailslide, finishing with an alley-oop wallride. “The jumps were well built and the rails were fun,” she said. “If it had been sunny, it would have been perfect!”

Today’s results mean new top 10 TTR rankings with Mikkel Bang rising 13 places to take top spot in the men’s rankings. Chas Guldemond rose five places to second and Tim Humphreys rises nine places to third. In the women’s, Jamie Anderson hangs onto her top spot while Cheryl Maas climbs three places to second and Sina Candrian rises three places to third.

Today’s results also see two Kiwis enter the TTR top 10 – James Hamilton in seventh and Mitchell Brown in 10th.  However, it was Shelly Gottlieb (Queenstown) who took the glory in the Kiwi camp with a fourth place in the women’s comp with a strong first run that put her just three points behind third place winner, Spencer O’Brien (CAN). The highest placed Kiwi male was Nick Hyne in eighth.

The Burton NZ Open finishes tomorrow (Saturday) with the highlight event – the halfpipe finals. For further information and full results, visit www.opensnowboarding.com

For those unable to make to Snow Park NZ, watch the semi-finals and finals live on Go211.com, where webcasts and highlights of the competitions will also be available for on-demand viewing once the event is over.

-ends-

For further media information, contact:
Victoria Murray-Orr
T: +64 275 617 893  E: vmo@evenz.co.nz



About the Burton Global Open Series
The Burton Global Open Series events are the pinnacle snowboarding events of the season. Founded by Jake Burton, the Opens have grown from grassroots events to global spectacles attracting tens of thousands of spectators and riders from around the world. Since the beginning, the Opens have been driven by riders, for riders evolving with snowboarding and riders’ needs over the years. With events held in Canada, Europe, Japan, the United States, New Zealand and Australia, the Opens set the standard for snowboarding events around the globe. For more information, visit www.opensnowboarding.com

About the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour
Founded by Terje Haakonsen and industry innovators in 2002, the SWATCH Ticket To Ride (TTR) World Snowboard Tour is a non-profit, rider-driven organization with the mission to create the highest quality competitive snowboard environment in the world, using authenticity, accessibility and innovation as guiding principles. Since its foundation, the Swatch TTR Tour has been developing into the most exposed snowboard tour worldwide featuring global grass root and key independent freestyle snowboarding events over a ten-month period from Southern to Northern Hemisphere locations. Events are rated via a 1-through-6Star system, with points allocated accordingly, a 6Star event holds the highest. Any rider participating in these events, from up-and-coming to professional talent, earns ranking points and a position on the SWATCH TTR World Ranking List. The top male and female rider based on an average of their best eight results of the season is crowned SWATCH TTR World Snowboard Tour Champion. For more information, visit www.ttrworldtour.com

About Go211.com
Go211.com is the leading community and video site for lifestyle sports created by and for action sports athletes and enthusiasts. It’s the place to hang with the pros and friends to get behind-the-scenes video, blogs, photos, webcasts and podcasts from featured contributors along with other action sports fans.  Go211.com offers a broad range of exclusive content submitted directly from the athletes.  The current Go211 Pro Team roster includes Keir Dillon, Keegan Valaika, Danny Kass, Hannah Teter, Kevin Pearce, Kelly Clark, Jack Mitrani, Ben Watts, Donny Robinson, CJ Hobgood, Christian Hosoi, Holly Beck, Sarah Burke and Mike Losness, among others.