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Top International Riders and Olympic Hopefuls to Compete at the 2009 Burton New Zealand Open

Thursday 16 July 2009, 10:47AM

By EveNZ

928 views

WANAKA

Top riders from around the world are lining up to compete at the Burton New Zealand Open (NZO), taking place from August 11-15, 2009 at Cardrona Alpine Resort in New Zealand. The first stop on the 2009/2010 Burton Global Open Series and a Swatch TTR 5Star event, the New Zealand Open will include slopestyle and halfpipe competitions, offering riders the chance to earn a piece of the NZ$50,000 prize purse and gain valuable points towards Burton Global Open Series championship titles and the Swatch Ticket To Ride World Tour championship titles.

Planning to compete is last year’s BGOS men’s champion Chas Guldemond (USA), who also finished second on the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour. He will be joined by fellow U.S. riders Danny Davis, Tim Humpreys, Luke Mitrani, Jack Mitrani and Mason Aguirre.

Cardrona Alpine Resort is the home to the only 22’ halfpipe in New Zealand, which is the same size pipe that will be featured at the 2010 Winter Olympics. Canadian Olympic hopefuls like Justin Lamoureux, Charles Reid and Sebastien Toutant will undoubtedly be fine-tuning their runs for Vancouver.

Last year’s Asian contingent was exceptionally strong at the NZO, and this year looks to be no different with confirmed riders like last year’s halfpipe winner Kazuhiro Kokubo and second place finisher Daisuke Murakami, who also took home prizes for highest air in the quarterpipe and best trick in the halfpipe. Japanese Olympic hopefuls Ryo Aono, Keito Kumazaki, Takaharu Nakai will also be competing, in addition to Chinese National Team rider and future Olympian Xiaoye Zeng.

The women’s field is equally strong with competitors such as Olympic gold medalist and Swatch TTR World Tour Champion Kelly Clark (USA) kicking off her season in New Zealand alongside last year’s BGOS champion and NZO halfpipe and slopestyle winner Jamie Anderson (USA). Lisa Wiik (NOR), who took second place in both BGOS and TTR rankings and won last year’s European Open slopestyle competition will also be there, riding alongside European contenders like Cheryl Maas (NED), Sina Candrian (SUI), Silvia Mittermueller (GER) and Sarka Pancochova (CZE). Chinese National Team riders Jiayu Liu and Zhifeng Su in addition to Japanese riders Shiho Nakashima, Soko Yamaoka and Naho Mizuki, will round out the global competition on the women’s side.

The international riders will face fierce competition from New Zealand’s homegrown talent like Wanaka’s own Mitchell Brown, James Hamilton (Auckland) and Stef Zeestraten (Wanaka) and Kendall Brown (Mt Maunganui) and Shelly Gotlieb (Ohakune) will be jockeying for positions on the women’s podium.

Competition gets underway on Wednesday, August 12 with the men’s and women’s slopestyle qualifiers. Thursday, August 13 will see men’s halfpipe prequalification and qualification rounds, followed by women’s halfpipe qualifications. All eyes will be on the slopestyle course on Friday for men’s and women’s slopestyle semifinals and finals. Men’s and women’s halfpipe semifinal and final competitions will take place on Saturday, August 15.

The Open is just as exciting off-snow with action every night, including free parties, rider signings and the Gravis Open Sessions, featuring two live concerts showcasing some of the biggest names in Kiwi music. For more information visit www.opensnowboarding.com

Burton would like to thank Cardrona Alpine Resort, Go211.com, Speight’s Summit Golden Lager, Juice TV, The Edge FM, Anon Optics, High Cascade Snowboard Camp, Nature Valley, goodbars.co.nz, Joe’s Garage, SolRX, McKenna, Smirnoff Ice Double Black and Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour for their support of the New Zealand Open.

If you can’t make it to New Zealand, watch the semi-finals and finals live on Go211.com, where webcasts and highlights of the competitions will also be available for on-demand viewing once the event is over.

About the Burton Global Open Series
The Burton Global Open Series events are the pinnacle snowboarding events of the season. Founded by Jake Burton, the Opens have grown from grassroots events to global spectacles attracting tens of thousands of spectators and riders from around the world. Since the beginning, the Opens have been driven by riders, for riders evolving with snowboarding and riders’ needs over the years. With events held in New Zealand, Europe, Canada, Japan and the United States, the Opens set the standard for snowboarding events around the globe. For more information, visit www.opensnowboarding.com.

About the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour
Founded by Terje Haakonsen and industry innovators in 2002, the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour is a non-profit, rider-driven organization with the mission to create the highest quality competitive snowboard environment in the world, using authenticity, accessibility and innovation as guiding principles. Since its foundation, the Swatch TTR Tour has been developing into the most respected snowboard tour worldwide featuring global grass root and key independent freestyle snowboarding events over a ten-month period from Southern to Northern Hemisphere locations. Events are rated via a 1-through-6Star system, with points allocated accordingly, a 6Star event holds the highest (1000 Swatch TTR points). Any rider participating in these events, from up-and-coming to professional talent, earns ranking points and a position on the Swatch TTR World Ranking List. The top male and female rider at the end of the season are crowned Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour Champion.

About GO211.com
GO211.com is the leading community and video site for action sports created for and by athletes and enthusiasts. It’s the place to go for behind-the-scenes videos, blogs, and photos from pro athletes and featured contributors along with other action sports fans. GO211.com is proud to offer a broad range of exclusive content submitted directly from the athletes and is proud to host interactive live webcasts of the top events in surf, skate, snow and BMX. The current GO211 Pro Team roster includes: Hannah Teter, Nate Yeomans, Torah Bright, Mikes Losness, Kelly Clark, Jack Mitrani, Andy Finch, Donny Robinson, Christian Hosoi, and Holly Beck, among others.

About Cardrona Alpine Resort
CARDRONA is located in the Crown Range between Queenstown (57kms/60mins) and Wanaka (34kms/35mins) in the South Island of New Zealand. With consistently good weather and reliable snow conditions Cardrona offers superb terrain suited to all ability levels. Cardrona is renowned for its wide open, undulating terrain that is perfect for beginners and intermediates, whilst the Arcadia and Tulips chutes offer extra challenge for more advanced riders. Cardrona is home to New Zealand’s premier terrain parks, with up to four half pipes, a gravity cross and a range of beginner freestyle features. For more information, visit www.cardrona.com


Distributed on behalf of Burton by EveNZ