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Winter X Games: Guldemond captures top spot in snowboard slopestyle elimination round

Sun Staff and Sun News Service reports
Nathan Bilow/AP PhotoChas Guldemond of Truckee flies through the air during slopestyle practice on Friday. Guldemond took the top spot in the elimination round to advance to Saturday's final.
AP | FR37383 AP

ASPEN, COLO. ” The Flying Tomato is in. Barely. Truckee’s Chas Guldemond? Piece of cake.

Guldemond captured the top spot in Friday’s snowboard slopestyle elimination round at Buttermilk to advance to Saturday’s final, which is scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m.

White, meanwhile ” one of the most decorated athletes in the history of Winter X ” just managed to sneak in with an eighth-place finish.



The top eight advanced.

Guldemond nabbed first place after two 78-point runs, while Scotty Lago of Seabrook, N.H. was second with a 76.33 points and Peetu Piiroinen of Finland third with 75.66. Norway’s Andreas Wiig, who last year won his second consecutive gold in the event, finished fourth with a 73.33.



On a day when snowy conditions and low visibility caused problems for all riders, White, who is vying for a Winter X record eighth gold medal, scored a 67.66 on his second run to slip into the eighth and final spot.

Kevin Pearce, thought by many to be White’s top competitor in slopestyle and in the pipe at these games, narrowly missed out qualifying after scoring a 66.66 ” good for ninth. The Norwich, Vt., native, who was second here last year when he competed in a record three events in one day, might have been hampered by injuries sustained during a training-run fall Thursday. Those injuries prompted him to pull out of Thursday’s night’s big air competition, which was won by Travis Rice.

Rice, from Jackson Hole, Wyo., was one of a handful of big names to fail to qualify Friday. Another was Truckee’s Danny Davis, who placed 11th with 58.33 points.

Torstein Horgmo, a Norwegian who finished second to Rice Thursday after winning gold in the inaugural big air event in 2008, was 15th, and former X Games medalist Mason Aguirre of Mammoth did not compete.

1. Chas Guldemond / 78 / Truckee, Calif.

2. Scotty Lago / 76.33 / Seabrook, N.H.

3. Peetu Piiroinen / 75.66 / Hyvinkaa, Finland

4. Andreas Wiig / 73.33 / Oslo, Norway

5. Jussi Oksanen / 71.00 / Encinitas, Calif.

6. Mikael Bang / 70.66 / Oslo, Norway

7. Tim Humphreys / 69.66 / Basking Ridge, N.J.

8. Shaun White / 67.66 / Carlsbad, Calif.

9. Kevin Pearce / 66.66 / Norwich, Vt.

10. Eero Niemela / 63.66 / San Clemente, Calif.

11. Danny Davis / 58.33 / Highland, Mich.

12. Heikki Sorsa / 48.00 / Helsinki, Finland

13. Eero Ettala / 32.00 / Helsinki, Finland

14. Travis Rice / 23.33 / Jackson Hole, Wyo.

15. Torstein Horgmo / 22.33 / Trondheim, Norway

16. Mason Aguirre / DNC / Mammoth, Calif.


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