Canadian Open - Day 4

Friday, the fourth day of the Burton Canadian Open, saw chilly temps and high winds during the men’s and women’s slopestyle qualifications which went down today at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alberta. Winds were gusting up to 39km/hr, with a wind chill at -8°c, which felt pretty darn cold after the balmy temperatures earlier in the week.
First to drop were the women in their slopestyle qualification round, 24 women took to the course which featured rails, boxes, a dance floor, two booters and a jibbable mushroom cap. The top nine ladies would move on to Sunday’s slopestyle semi-finals and finals, where they will face the likes of Breckenridge Dew Tour Gold Medalist Spencer O’Brien and TransWorld Rookie of the Year Raewyn Reid in addition to Leanne Pelosi, Sarka Pancochova and Silvia Mittermueller.
Although the competition was stiff amongst the ladies, the top spot went to Megan Ginter who kicked off her run with a smooth boardslide to front board to forward, followed by a front 50/50 backside 180 out, keeping speed into the first kicker and pulling a clean switch backside 180, followed by a backside 360 on the second jump, into a 50/50 on the down rail, finishing with a mushroom ride.

Result
Slopestyle Qualifications Women
1 Megan Ginter USA Ride
2 Breanna Stangeland CAN Forum
3 Cecilia Larsen SWE Burton
4 Mary Sallah USA Flow
5 Jenna Blasman CAN Burton
6 Julianne Brackett USA Betty Rides
7 Taryn Cowling CAN Billabong
8 Alexandra Duckworth CAN Rossignol
9 Kara Rennie CAN Nikita

A field of 40 men then took to the course for slopestyle qualifications, taking the top 14 finishers to Sunday’s semis and finals where they will battle for first place against current TTR World Tour points leader Chas Guldemond in addition to Mikkel Bang, Marko Grilc, Sebastien Toutant, TJ Schneider, Chris Sörman and Dustin Craven.
The competition was briefly delayed due to high winds during the men’s quals but the riders muscled through, able to overcome the adverse conditions. The top five finishers in the men’s qualification round scored within 8 points of each other, making for an exciting competition. But no one could step to Craig Beaulieu’s winning run, not even himself. Beaulieu scored a 90.83 on his first run by starting off with a boardslide to front board 270 out, followed by a front board 270 out, throwing down a switch back 900 on the first kicker, followed by a frontside 900 on the second, into a frontside boardslide 270 out finishing with a 540 slide on the mushroom.

Result
Slopestyle Qualifications Men
1 Craig Beaulieu CAN Clyde
2 Jon Versteeg CAN Nomis
3 Jed Anderson CAN Salomon
4 Dave Schmidt CAN The Source
5 Matt Belzile CAN K2
6 Warren Williams CAN Smith
7 Teddy Karlinski USA K2
8 Logan Haubrich CAN DC
9 Ryan Hall CAN Clyde
10 Robby Balharry CAN Westbeach
11 Jesmond Dubeau CAN Billabong
12 Sage Kotsenburg USA Quiksilver
13 Eric Willett USA Smith
14 Jeremy Cloutier CAN Rossignol

If you can’t make it to Canada, 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.