Shaun White prevails in men’s snowboard super-pipe Finals at the Nike Open
America’s legendary Shaun White asserted himself as the world’s best super-pipe rider by defeating some of the best snowboarders from across the globe during men’s snowboard pipe Finals that at the Nike Open, first of the three stops on the 2011-2012 Winter
Dew Tours, on Saturday, December 17, at Breckenridge Ski Resort in Colorado, America.
His compatriot Louie Vito finished in second place, while the Russian-born Swiss rider Iouri Podladtchikov secured the last remaining spot on the podium after finishing in third place.
As the world’s top snowboard super-pipe riders battled it out for top honours, the crowd was treated to a nail-biting showdown between White, Vito and Podladtchikov. None of the three riders looked willing to settle for anything less than the top spot on
the podium.
After missing the opening event of Winter Dew Tour last year to continue his campaign for his second Olympic gold medal, the 25-year-old White made his return to the prestigious winter action sports event in Breckenridge. Despite riding on a snowboard after
eight months, the American rider took less than a week to prepare for a bout against an intimidating line-up of riders.
After dominating the Semi-Finals on Friday, White carried his momentum to the 12-man Finals of Saturday. The snowboarding legend landed a run comprised of a massive back-side air into a 900, back-side 540, front-side 540 stale-fish, a huge double McTwist
1260 and an alley oop back-side rodeo to cap off the run. The phenomenal effort allowed him to post a 95.00 on the score-board. The score served to maintain his lead until the end to earn him the highest spot on the podium.
“I’m so happy to put that run down and make it count,” White said during the post-Finals interview. “I did the double McTwist 1260 which is such a pain. That trick, sometimes it’s your best friend and other times it’s not.”
The 23-year-old Vito still had a run left after White was done with his 95.00-point run and was the only one with a chance to remove his compatriot from the lead. He landed a series of remarkable tricks in his Finals run, which included a double crippler,
Michalchuk, front double 1080, cab double 1080, front 1260 before finishing with a back-side 540. However, the run earned 92.75 points for the effort, consequently behind White in second place.
The 23-year-old Podladtchikov took third place after scoring 90.00 off his best run. He had taken a slam on his face during his first run, but still managed to come back for the second run to unleash a solid run which comprised of a back-side air, crippler,
backside double cork 1260, front double 1080, cab double 1080 and back-side rodeo.
Talking about the nasty slam during his first run, Podladtchikov said, “It’s just mental. I hope I didn’t break my nose, it’s really swollen up right now. And I broke my goggles so I rode without the goggles in my second run.”
The Finals undoubtedly lived up to the expectations of the crowd as they expecting nothing but fire-works during the clash of the biggest names in the super-pipe discipline of snowboarding.
The Winter Dew Tour is scheduled to make its next stop in Killington, Vermont, in January next year.
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