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19/03/2011
Issue 46

James "Woodsy" Woods

Winter X-Games Europe
For the second year the European winter X-Games are being hosted by Tignes at Val Claret. The two main event disciplines include Superpipe and slopestyle. Each divided into male/female, ski/snowboarding categories.

Although the slopestyle course covers the largest area it’s the halfpipe that grabs everyone’s attention. The superpipe, for want of a more suitable name, which is situated next to the Val Claret lift apparently took 44000m3 of snow to make, measures 220 meters long (and is a bugger to walk up), 18 meters wide and 7 meters high giving the riders scope for some massive tricks.

On the first day of the competition, apart from many practice sessions, all eyes were on the men’s ski slopestyle qualification which featured the first of the English riders, James “Woodsy” Woods. After his first run he scored an impressive 86/100 to be placed 3rd overall and guaranteeing him entry to the final on Thursday.

The women’s ski slopestyle final followed which featured another up and coming young English star, Katie Summerhayes. Despite tricky conditions she scored 69.66 on her second run placing her 9th overall. She is definitely one to watch in the future. Defending women's ski slopestyle champ Kaya Turski(CAN) took gold medal beating the American Keri Herman and fellow country woman Kim Lamarre.

The final event of the day, the Men’s ski superipe, saw defending champion, 3 times winter X-games champion and local hero, Kevin Rolland defend his title. After his first run he set a score of 93/100 which was unbeatable. Justin Dorey came second with a 90/100 followed by 15 year old Torin Yater-Wallace whose third run secured 3rd place.

On Thursday despite low visibility and difficult snow conditions James Woods bettered his score with an 89.66 to win the bronze medal in the finals. And with that he also made history becoming the first British skier to win a medal at the Winter X Games. JF Houle (CAN), the top scorer from yesterday’s qualifying event set the pace right from the start with a first run that scored a whopping 94.33 points. His run opened with a butter 450 in, carried on with bio720 mute, a 450 in, a switch 270 in on the down box and finished with double 1200 Japan and 900. Nobody would do better than this, not even Norwegian, Andreas Hatveit, whose second run scored 92.33 points and earned him the silver medal.

In the women’s Snowboard SuperPipe finals Kelly Clark (USA) won with her first run score of 92.66. Her fellow countrywoman, 2006 Olympic champion, Hannah Teter clinched the silver with 91 points and her 6th Winter X Games medal. Whereas Queralt Castellet, the Spanish rider that finished third, got her first Winter X Games medal.

Friday saw the American rider Jamie Anderson take first place in the women’s Snowboard slopestyle event. She did this with a consistent run that scored 95.33 points.

After a phenomenal first run that was awarded 98 points, everyone thought that Sebastien Toutant (Can) had all but clinched the gold. This was true until Chas Guldemond's second run, that was declared ‘close to perfection’ by the judges who awarded Chas 99.33 points after painstakingly studying his run.Completing the podium behind Sebastien Toutant comes the Breckenridge resident Eric Willet in third place. England’s Jamie Nicholls finished in 18th with a best score of 30.33.

In the women’s ski superPipe Sarah Burke, who has been outrageously dominating the discipline, won her fifth Winter X Games gold medal just two months after her victory in Aspen. The Canadian that has been showing the women's field that inverts are not exclusively for the men, landed a flawless run with a Cork 9 and a Flatspin 5 that would make many guys jealous.

Anaïs Caradeux, The 20 year old La Clusaz reisident, confirmed that her 2010 Winter X Games bronze medal wasn’t fluke, landed a really smooth first run that scored 93 points, was leading right up until Sarah Burke’s (CAN) last run. But Sarah’s last ‘supersonic’ run put her into a logical second place. In the last event of the day 22 year old Louie Vito took home a gold medal in the Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe. Iouri Podladtchikov, known by his fans as IPOD, the Russian born Swiss rider and defending gold medallist came second followed by fellow swiss rider Christian Haller.

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