She came, she soared
and she conquered hearts - but top New Zealand female
snowboarder Shelly Gotlieb (31), of Wanaka, could not land a
double back flip yesterday at the New Zealand Snowboard Open
slopestyle final at Cardrona Alpine Resort.
Despite bombing out, spectators had nothing but praise for
her performance.
Had she landed the trick, she would have performed a
world-first in women's slopestyle competition and almost
certainly won the first prize of $6000.
Instead, the second-seeded athlete sacrificed all by trying
the stunt twice, including in her final run when she could
have done a "safety run" instead.
Spectators were saying at least Gotlieb's attempts, in the
presence of eventual winner and world No 1 Jamie Anderson
(20), of the United States, set a high bar for the Winter
Games slopestyle at the Snow Park next weekend.
Gotlieb was philosophical afterwards.
"The achievement was in attempting it. It is something I have
been wanting to do for a long time. A lot of preparation goes
into that on snow and on airbags.
"No girl has done one in a competition and I was looking
forward to the challenge of landing it in a competition run.
If the opportunity arises [to try it at the Winter Games],
you never know," she said.
Gotlieb took part with a wrist injury which prevented her
from competing at the Snow Park's Billabong slopestyle a week
ago.
Mark McMorris (17), of Canada, won the men's slopestyle title
yesterday from compatriot Sebastien Toutant (18) and Stale
Sandbech (18), of Norway.
The trio were uncertain whether they would compete in next
week's Winter Games, because they did not know anything about
it.
They were staying for at least another 10 days, so would
observe the games and consider entering, they said.
The New Zealand Snowboard Open finishes today with half pipe
finals for women and semifinals and finals for men.
Results from the slopestyle finals. -
Women: Jamie Anderson (US), 88.83pts, 1;
Kjersti Ostgaard Buaas (Norway), 84.38pts, 2; Jordie
Karlinski (US), 61.35pts, 3; Shelly Gotlieb (NZ), 31.58pts,
7.
Men: Mark McMorris (Canada), 90.90pts, 1;
Sebastien Toutant (Canada), 90.55pts, 2; Stale Sandbech
(Norway), 89.78 pts, 3.
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