Team Breckenridge rider Steve Fisher finished seventh in the rain-shortened halfpipe event on the final day of the FIS Snowboard World Championships in Arosa, Switzerland, last weekend. Scotty Lago of New Hampshire was the only other American to make the 12-man final, finishing 12th.
With rain continuing to melt a deteriorating halfpipe, organizers reverted to an old FIS format in which only the top six men and top three women moved on to the finals after their first qualifying run and the rest of the top 25 men and top 15 women were given a second qualifying run.
Tricia Byrnes of Vermont was 13th and 2006 Olympic silver medalist Gretchen Bleiler of Aspen finished 20th as only six women moved into the finals.
“It was a huge challenge and a big letdown,” U.S. Snowboarding coach Mike Jankowski said. “Gretchen was riding great all week in training, but she landed in a hole on her qualifying run and didn’t get a second shot. Fisher and Scotty rode well and got in there, but unfortunately a podium didn’t happen. We’ve just got to shake this off, put it behind us and head into X Games with a clear head.”
DISABLED SKIING: Dukat shines in Aspen event
Sandy Dukat of Vail made it to the podium for two consecutive days to close out the Challenge Aspen IPC World Cup at Aspen Mountain last weekend, notching a silver medal in the women’s standing division of Saturday’s giant slalom and a bronze in Sunday’s slalom.
The U.S. Disabled Alpine Team finished with nine top-three finishes at the event. It now heads to Kimberley, British Columbia, for the second stop on the World Cup circuit.
“I’m just going to go into it, and try to take the energy I built over the past couple days into Kimberley,” Dukat said. “It was great. I went out and pushed myself outside of my comfort zone and put two solid runs together in two days. I was happy to keep the momentum going for a second day to get third place.”
SNOWBOARDCROSS: Wescott powers U.S. sweep
Olympic snowboardcross gold medalist Seth Wescott of Maine and silver medalist Lindsey Jacobellis of Vermont were crowned king and queen of the mountain at Beaver Creek on Sunday, winning their respective divisions of the Snowboard World Professional Championships races displaced from Austria due to lack of snow.
Wescott led an American sweep in the unique head-to-head format races, followed by Graham Watanabe of Utah and Nate Holland of California. Two-time Olympian Kikkan Randall of Anchorage, Alaska, earned the first World Cup cross podium by a U.S. woman Sunday, finishing third in the 1.2K freestyle sprint in Rybinsk, Russia.
SKI MOUNTAINEERING: Passant continues to win
Crested Butte’s iron-lunged strongman, Ethan Passant, did it again last weekend, winning his second race in the inaugural Colorado Ski Mountaineering Cup series. Passant raced the 11-mile, 4,700-vertical-foot course from Snowmass to Aspen Highlands in less than two hours. Carey Smith of Jackson Hole finished second and Gunnison County’s Bryan Wickenhauser took third to go with his second-place finish two weeks ago.
The women finished in identical order as the first race at Sunlight ski area, with Ophir’s Karen Kingsley taking first place, followed by Breck’s Sue King and Jari Kirkland of Crested Butte.
(COMPILED BY STAFF WRITERS SCOTT WILLOUGHBY AND JASON BLEVINS)
