13 August 2005
Riding Like Never Before And Fresh Powder To Boot
Fresh snow and world-class competitive riding marked the final day of the Burton New Zealand Open at Cardrona Alpine
Resort today (Saturday). New Zealand snowboarding rose to a new level with yesterday’s qualifiers joining today’s
pre-qualified riders to put on the best show of riding ever witnessed in New Zealand.
The men’s competition was a nail-biting contest with three of the world’s best snowboarders constantly stepping up the
difficulty of their runs in a bid to out do each other into first place. At the end of the day Olympic gold medallist
and US Open champion Ross Powers took first place in his last run of the day astonishing the crowd with huge airs, back
to back spins and general all-round clean run, capping it off with 1080.
Last year’s winner, Crispin Lipscomb from Canada had to make do with second place, despite a very clean run giving him
the lead with back to back 900 spins and huge until Ross Powers pulled out his outstanding last run.
Current World Superpipe Champion, Keir Dillon had been piecing together tricks all day and finally strung it together
when it counted to take third place.
In the women’s competition, Hannah Teter (USA) was the stand out right from the practice run in the morning. She lead
from the start and stepped it up on each run until the last where she pulled off a frontside 900 spin, making her the
clear winner.
Showing that age is never an issue, 13-year-old Ellery Hollingsworth (USA) took out second with a display of riding way
beyond her years.
Highest place New Zealanders were brother and sister team, Mitch and Kendall Brown who placed 10th and 6th respectively,
both riding well against a strong international field.
ENDS