Six Olympians from four countries swept the podium today during the halfpipe competition at the second annual Burton Canadian Open. It was picturesque day in Calgary for the internationally diverse field of riders who were competing for a piece of the $25,000 prize purse, in addition to valuable points towards the Burton Global Open Series and the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour titles.

The women were first to drop and Kiwi Kendall Brown took the top spot in semis with a run that started out with an alley-oop tai-pan, followed by back-to-back 540’s, into a stylish method, finishing with a difficult air to fakie melon, which scored her an impressive 88.17. Canadians Mercedes Nicoll and Sarah Conrad were hot on her heels, taking second and third respectively.

In finals Conrad stepped it up and threw down a great run that featured back to back 5’s, but Kendall regained her lead with her second run. Brown started off her winning run with a lein air, followed by a backside 540 mute, into frontside 540 stalefish, into backside air, finishing with an air-to-fakie. Kendall had this to say of today’s win, “This was a great competition; it was so awesome to have such a good pipe and so much time to train over the week. It’s my first Canadian Open and I will definitely be back next year.”

It was then the men’s turn to drop-in to the 22’ halfpipe at Canada Olympic park and Iouri “I-Pod” Podladtchikov, hot off of a silver medal win at the X-Games, stuck his second run and took first in semis with a solid score of 86.67. I-Pod’s run started off with a huge fronside air, followed by a backside 900 melon, into a frontside 1080 tailgrab, Cab 720 indy, finishing with a frontside 540 backside grab. Fighting Podladtchikov for first were Ben Watts (USA) and Dustin Craven (CAN), who both impressed the judges with their style and amplitude.

Canadian Justin Lamoureux took the lead early in finals with his clean spins and technical runs, while Markus Malin wowed the crowd with a double cork 1080 truckdriver. But it was I-Pod who took the win after stomping his second run in finals, starting off with a Cab 1080 double cork mute, followed by a frontside 1080 tailgrab, into a Cab 720 mute, frontside 540 tailgrab, finishing with a stylish backside air. “I am in the best condition of my life,” said Iouri. “I have had a great season so far. I have already had some podiums in the contest circuit this year, but of course taking first is the sweetest place to be.”

The Canadian Open wraps up tomorrow with men’s and women’s slopestyle finals, tune-in to Go211.com and watch it all happen live, the action starts at 1:00pm EST.

An overall male and female Burton Global Open Series Champion will be crowned at the final event, the US Open Snowboarding Championships held in Stratton, Vermont. The top three men and women will take home equal prize money, with first place winning $50,000, second place $30,000 and third place taking home $20,000.

With 850 Swatch TTR points for the winners at this 5Star event on the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour, Iouri Podladtchikov (SUI) bumped down his fellow countryman Christian Haller into World No. 3 and now sits in second. Also the women saw a new rider taking over the No. 2 spot with Lisa Wiik (NOR) taking seventh in the finals. Wiik could take over the TTR Tour lead tomorrow with a good result in the slopestyle format. She is facing a tight battle with Sina Candrian (SUI) trying to get back into that World No. 2 spot and Cilka Sadar (SLO) also looking to improve her rank in the Swatch TTR Top 5.

If you can’t make it to Canada Olympic Park, watch the semifinals 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. The 2010 Canadian Open halfpipe and slopestyle action can be seen on The Score on February 28 at 4:00 p.m. EST.

Results Halfpipe Women

1 Kendall Brown NZL
2 Sarah Conrad CAN
3 Mercedes Nicoll CAN

Results Halfpipe Men

1 Iouri Podladtchikov SUI
2 Justin Lamoureux CAN
3 Markus Malin FIN

For the UK, Lesley McKenna finished in 11th place in the semi-finals.

Burton would like to thank WinSport Canada, Go211.com, Paul Mitchell, Amp Energy, Samsung, Travel Alberta, Tourism Calgary, Calgary Hotel Association, Alberta Lottery Fund, Snowboard Canada Magazine, Transworld Snowboarding Magazine, Sennheiser and Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour for their support of the Canadian Open.

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