NZSnowboard.com - The home of New Zealand Snowboarding

22nd March 2010

Stratton, Vermont Fresh off her debut as an Olympian, Rebecca Sinclair has ended her Northern Hemisphere season with a career best performance at the worlds biggest and most prestigious open snowboarding event, the Burton US Open.

New Zealands Halfpipe Team Coach Tom Willmott described the US Open as the most progressive snowboard event of the season.

Great spring-time weather conditions throughout the week, plenty of training time, and superbly shaped features allowed riders to excel and push the limits of snowboarding across slopestyle, railjam and halfpipe disciplines.

At the top echelon, the level of riding was insane, said Willmott.

Breakthrough runs in slopestyle and halfpipe were achieved with many riders landing their best runs of the year and others seeking Olympic redemption.

Back-to-back-to-back double corks in men's halfpipe, back-to-back 12's in men's slopestyle, and 1080 attempts in women's halfpipe were thrown.

This raised the bar of snowboarding beyond that set at the Olympics and previous 6-Star TTR events.

New Zealand was well represented with a mix of youth and experience.

Shelly Gotlieb's second place finish in the women's slopestyle yesterday was the standout performance, backed up by excellent riding and respectable results from other members of the team.

In Slopestyle, Nick Brown and Nick Hyne put together solid runs and Brown finished 24th.

In the pipe, James Hamilton nailed back-to-back 10s early in the week and posted the highest score of his session, Ben Stewart pushed his technical ability attempting double cork cab 10s in semi-finals.

Meanwhile Juliane Bray achieved yet another top-10 result in Spain at the FIS World Cup finals finishing in 7th after a 4th place finish in the Italian World Cup.

Currently ranked in ninth place, Gotlieb is continuing on to the Roxy Chicken Jam: the final event of the women's TTR World Tour.

The rest of the team will begin to make their way homeward, some staying on for some spring shredding.

It has been an intense season, distinguished by a noticeable increase in the depth of NZ snowboard talent achieving on the world stage, said Willmott.

Podiums at major events, multiple finals appearances, along with many personal best runs and progression have been achieved. The 2009-10 season has set the standard for the future, and New Zealand snowboarders will continue to push their own level and challenge the rest of the world.










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