Toutant and Anderson lead Swatch TTR World Tour as focus shifts to the upcoming northern hemisphere season
The Southern Hemisphere leg of the 2009/2010 Swatch TTR World Tour has come to a close with Canadian ripper, Sebastien Toutant, and American snowboarder, Jamie Anderson, sitting in the TTR World No.1 positions giving them a healthy lead moving into the Northern Hemisphere winter. The Southern Hemisphere season was full of great performances at the 5Star Burton New Zealand Open and 4Star Stylewars with never-before-seen tricks in the halfpipe and some amazing runs put down in slopestyle. The upcoming Northern Hemisphere season is set to be jam packed full of action as riders get ready for a busy schedule leading up to the Olympics in February.
Sebastien Toutant (CAN), only 16 years old, made his mark in history as the youngest rider to ever rank World No.1 in the Swatch TTR Rankings. Toutant was able to beat out a stacked field on the slopestyle course at the Burton New Zealand Open for a first place finish. He then moved on to Australia for the 4Star Stylewars competition where he took on fellow Canadian, Charles Reid, in a tight battle on the massive slopestyle setup. Toutant was able to take the first place finish at Stylewars and now sits in the top spot in the TTR rankings with Reid and Mason Aguirre (USA) hot on his heels moving into the Northern Hemisphere season. On the women’s side, Jamie Anderson dominated the slopestyle course at the New Zealand Open and at the 3Star Billabong Bro Down and is now sitting comfortably in World No. 1 in front of Sarka Pancochova (CZE), Lisa Wiik (NOR) and Silvia Mittermueller (GER).
Looking forward to the Northern Hemisphere winter, the Swatch TTR Tour has an exceptionally busy early season schedule this year. The tour will kick off in Europe with the 4Star Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam taking place November 11-15, 2009 on the Dachstein glacier in Austria. The first major 6Star event for men, the Billabong Air & Style, will go down December 3-6, 2009 in Innsbruck, Austria and will feature a big air format. The 6Star Oakley Arctic Challenge will be the next major event for the men which will run December 28, 2009 to January 3, 2010 and will feature both quarterpipe and slopestyle formats.
The women will get their first run at a major 6Star at the Roxy Chicken Jam taking place January 7-10, 2010 and will switch to a new location at Saalbach Hinterglemm, Austria. The Chicken Jam will overlap with the kick-off of the 6Star Burton European Open that will run January 9-16, 2009 at its usual location in Laax, Switzerland.
The 2009/2010 season is set to be a great competition year. The Northern Hemisphere leg is only a short time away and riders are sure to unleash their skills with the Olympics on the horizon in February. If history is any indicator, March will be quite the showdown as the 6Star Burton US Open is always unusually stacked full of talent in Olympic years. Stay tuned to ttrworldtour.com for all tour news, videos and updated rider profiles.
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Source: ESPN.com