In the Women’s competition it was Czech rider Sarka Pancochova taking the victory and Isabel Derungs and Elena Koenz of Switzerland taking second and third.

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Shaun White (Carlsbad, CA) made a big leap towards Sochi Sunday with his third-place finish at the Paul Mitchell Slopestyle at the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix.16 year old Ty Walker’s (USA) top-four result fulfilled her objective criteria for Olympic qualification, and her top finish over the Americans moved her up in the standings behind Jamie Anderson (S. Lake Tahoe, CA), who fell during both of her runs Sunday and finished seventh. After a holiday break, the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix Tour moves to Breckenridge Jan. 8-11, where the battle continues for spots on the first-ever Olympic slopestyle snowboarding team. Pancochova’s winning run: Transfer to frontside 180 off down-flat-down, switch nose slide backside 180 off the tube, switch backside 180, backside 360, frontside 540

 

Sarka Pancochova had this to say:

 

‘I am so excited! I was trying to figure out the run, the course has been changing since practice. This was the first time I actually hit the jump since it’s been reshaped and it paid off, I am happy with my run. As far as the Olympics, I am on the Slopestyle team, but want to gather more points for Pipe, I am gonna double!’

 

Chas Guldemond had the folowing to say about his run:

‘It was good, but it was tough. The conditions were super slow so it was all about putting a run together and then going from there. The new snow from last night is super cold, so it’s not fast and it started getting windy on the second run.

Now that I’m sitting pretty good with my position in the U.S. I’m going to just start focusing on me and really start working on those big tricks.’

 

Ty Walker also reflected on his performance:

‘I was really, really happy after landing my first run. It was a little bit challenging with the speed, but I was really happy that the girls were able to finally hit the big stuff and we were able to put on a good show. I’m so stoked. The top four really just takes a huge weight off my shoulders going into the next three events.

It snowed a little bit last night so the course was a bit chalky this morning and it was kind of a struggle for speed. On my second run I definitely hit the knuckle pretty hard on a frontside 720. You had to land every jump really clean, so it really separated the good riders from the people that were kind of all over the place.’

 

World Snowboard Tour rankings in Slopestyle now see Stale Sandbech in the top spot, followed by Charles Reidand Tyler Nicholson, and Torstein Horgmo moving back into the top 10. In the Women’s Ranking Enni Rukajärvi moved into the top spot, followed by Silje Norendal ans Sarka Pancochova in third.