Olympic snowboarder Kelly Clark in Queenstown yesterday.
Photo by Henrietta Kjaer.
Five Vancouver Olympic halfpipe finalists are among the
260 snowboarders who have entered the New Zealand Open at
Cardrona Alpine Ski Resort this week.
The top halfpipe performers are Kelly Clark (United States),
who won a bronze medal in Vancouver and gold at the 2002
Winter Olympics, and Iouri Podladtchikov, of Switzerland, who
was fourth in the Olympic men's halfpipe in February.
Gold medallist Shaun White is not returning to defend the New
Zealand halfpipe title he won last year during the Winter
Games.
The competition will still be strong for Podladtchikov, who
is joined on the invitation list by American Louie Vito
(fifth in Vancouver) and Japanese boarders Kazuhiro Kokubo
(eighth in Vancouver) and Ryo Aono (ninth in Vancouver).
All have been seeded straight through to the semifinals on
Saturday.
Clark is defending her title but her podium companions from
last year, top Chinese women Jiayu Liu (fourth in Vancouver)
and Zhifeng Sun (seventh in Vancouver), are not on the
invitation list and it is not known if they will compete this
week.
No New Zealand halfpipe riders were on the invitation list
provided to the Otago Daily Times, meaning Olympians James
Hamilton, Kendall Brown, Mitchell Brown and Juliane Bray will
have to prove their mettle during Thursday's qualifying
rounds.
American Jamie Anderson and Canada's Sebastien Toutant are
back to defend their slopestyle titles.
New Zealand slopestylers Shelly Gotlieb, Stef Zeestraten,
Jacob Koia and Nick Brown are on the invitation list and will
proceed directly to the semifinals on Friday.
Some of the snowboarders were treated to a day of bungy
jumping, jet-boating and golf in Queenstown yesterday.
Clark said she would be spending three months training in New
Zealand, mostly at Cardrona.
"Wanaka has become quite a hub for snowboarders. It is a
great place to stay," she said.
She did not yet know if she would be presenting new tricks on
the slopes this season.
"After an Olympic year you kind of have to regroup and start
looking another four years ahead."
The $50,000 Open begins today with rider registrations and
practices and continues until Saturday.
It is the first of five events throughout the world in the
Burton Global Open series.
It is also part of the international Ticket To Ride series.
For the first time, a live scoring system will be used.
It scores riders on individual tricks and how well they link
all their tricks on their run down the halfpipe.
It replaces the current system, which provides little or no
feedback on how the score is generated.
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