Burke is BACK! Sarah and Roz place 1st and 3rd at Snowbasin Dew Tour!
Snowbasin, Utah, USA
It was almost exactly one year ago that Sarah Burke broke her back in the slopestyle event at the Winter XGames. In her first competition since the injury, Sarah returned to the contest scene right where she left off… on top of the podium!
It was a fantastic day for an event today here at Snowbasin; beautiful weather, BIG crowds, a well prepared halfpipe, and a strong field of competitors pushing the limits of the sport. In the womens event, team members Rosalind Groenewoud and Sarah Burke were both in the final, and when it came time to perform, they both rose to the challenge!
Roz was charging hard and jumping HUGE, going bigger than some of the men’s field. In the “best of two run” format, she nailed a solid run and score right away on her first run, giving herself a chance to push even harder for her second run. In the end, Roz was rewarded with 3rd place, a great start to the season!
Sarah’s day was a little more filled with drama, as a fall on her first run had her sitting in last position coming into the final run, with only one more chance to get a score. As she has done so often in the past, Sarah stayed strong under the pressure, and threw down the best run of the day, unleashing a perfect 900 in the middle of her run, combined with a 540 and a 720, to take first place!
On the men’s side, Momentum coach, Peter Olenick stepped up his game to grab 3rd place. However, today was unfortunately not what we were hoping for. Justin Dorey and Mike Riddle entered todays’ final as two heavy favourites, with Mike leading the tour standings, and Justin winning the qualification round yesterday. Despite training well in the morning, both Mike and Justin had troubles landing their competition runs, and ended up finishing the day in 10th and 12th position respectively.
Attached a few pics of the team this week.
The team will spend the next week in preparation for the upcoming Winter XGames, stay tuned for more reports as the season unfolds.
Dew Tour Snowbasin Podium:
Women
1 Sarah Burke (CAN)
2 Jen Hudak (USA)
3 Rosalind Groenewoud (CAN)
7 Dania Assaly (CAN)
Men
1 Jossi Wells (NZL)
2 Simon Dumont (USA)
3 Peter Olenick (USA)
10 Mike Riddle (CAN)
12 Justin Dorey (CAN)
19 Matt MArgetts (CAN)
Trennon Paynter,
Coach, Canadian Halfpipe Ski Team
http://frsk.me/7r
http://www.canadiansuperpipe.com
