Anderson comes back in style
19-YEAR-OLD WINS NEW ZEALAND OPEN SLOPESTYLE
Jamie Anderson the snowboarder after two major injuries posted a result that her followers have come to expect.
The 19-year-old from the South Shore returned to competitive snowboarding on Thursday, winning the women’s slopestyle event in the Burton New Zealand Open at Cardrona Alpine Resort in New Zealand.
Anderson, who suffered a ruptured spleen in March, finished second to Shelly Gotlieb in the semifinal round of the women’s slopestyle. Gotlieb was a point better than Anderson in each of their two qualifying runs. Both riders executed the best run on their second attempt, with Gotlieb receiving a judges’ score of 74.50 and Anderson scoring 73.50.
But Anderson stepped it up in the eight-rider finals to outscore Gotlieb and hard-charging Janna Weatherby of Bend, Ore. Anderson’s first of three final runs – 73.33 – on the 800-meter course was good enough for the victory. Anderson topped that score with a 74.0-point effort on her second run, and it wasn’t until the final run that one of her competitors topped the 70-point mark. Weatherby overtook Gotlieb for second place by scoring 73 in her final attempt. Gotlieb was third at 68.67.
Two other Americans qualified for finals: Hana Beaman and Joanna Dzierzawski.
Truckee’s Chas Guldemond qualified fourth for the men’s slopestyle finals and went on to finish 11th. Sebastien Toutan, a 16-year-old from Montreal, won the competition.
Anderson is also expected to compete in Friday’s women’s halfpipe semifinals and finals.
For more on this story, please click here.
Source: www.tahoedailytribune