Queralt Castellet steals more than just the show in women’s Halfpipe Finals at Burton Canadian Open
Spain’s Queralt Castellet exhibited great form at the 5Star 2012 Burton Canadian Open to eventually claim top honours in the women’s Halfpipe Final that went down at the Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alberta, on Friday night, February 3. Her performance
was monumental indeed and allowed her to comfortably prevail over some of the most intimidating female riders from around the world to rise to top in both the Ticket to Ride (TTR) Women’s Halfpipe Rankings and the Burton Global Open Series.
While the 22-year-old Spaniard secured the highest spot on the podium, the rest of the podium was filled by American riders, with Gretchen Bleiler finishing in second place while Ellery Hollingsworth rounding out the top-three.
With the presence of American Halfpipe queen Kelly Clark in the field, it was only natural to believe that the competition would end with her taking her winning streak to 14. Despite taking second place in the Semi-finals to comfortably qualify for the Friday’s
Finals, the 28-year-old Clark was unable to compete due to an injury sustained during practice.
With Clark out of contention, Castellet had little reason to believe that she could not clinch the win in the Finals. For someone who had made it to the podium regularly during the Burton Global Open Series as well as the TTR World Snowboard Tour, the Sabadell-based
rider had an opportunity to not only take the highest place on the podium at Burton Canadian Open on Friday, but also rise to the top in TTR Women’s Halfpipe World Tour Rankings. A win was also going to give her enough points to rise to number 2 spot in the
TTR Women’s Overall World Tour Overall Rankings, just below Slovenia’s Cilka Sadar.
With so much to gain with a successful Friday night, Castellet put on a phenomenal show for the crowd and judges at the Canada Olympic Park’s halfpipe. After a decent Run 1, she raised the bar quite high during her second run, throwing a front-side 900,
back-side 540 mute, front-side 540, a back-side air and her first front-side 1080, becoming the second rider after Clark to have landed the trick in a women’s halfpipe competition.
The run earned her a winning score of 84.73 to seal the fate of the Final in her favour.
“I am very excited to win tonight as this was my first time at the Canadian Open, my first time landing a front-side 1080 and my first time winning at an Open,” Castellet said in her post-Final interview. “I feel really, really good tonight.”
The 30-year-old Bleiler took second place after throwing an exquisite Run 2 that comprised of a Crippler, back-side 540 mute, front-side 720 tail, cab 720 Indy and a front-side tail, earning an 81.28 for the effort.
Hollingsworth rounded out the podium after scoring a 76.68 off her third run. The run featured a Michalchuk, front-side stale-fish air, back-side 540 mute, front-side 720 and a cab 900.
Canada’s Sarah Conrad got to take home the “Creative Use of Space” award presented by event sponsor Mini, for beautifully executed switch alley-oop 720.
Clark will definitely be putting up a fight to reclaim the top spot on the TTR Women’s Halfpipe World Tour Rankings once she recovers from her injury. For now, Castellet will definitely be aiming to not only hold on to the lead in the Halfpipe Rankings,
but will also be looking to unseat Sadar from the TTR Women’s Overall World Tour Rankings.
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