Martinod and Yater-Wallace awarded with top spots following the cancellation of the halfpipe finals
Aug 31, 2018·Freeski Park & Pipe
Once again Mother Nature had different plans from those of the organizers of the 2017 Toyota US Grand Prix World Cup staged at Mammoth Mountain with strong winds making it impossible to run the show. After several postponement leading to eventual cancellation of the halfpipe finals, top qualifiers from Wednesday, Marie Martinod (FRA) and Torin Yater-Wallace (USA) were awarded with the wins.
Following two days of gnarly weather at the resort, today brought an improvement with sun finally making its way through the clouds. Unfortunately high winds wouldn't let go and as they were creating major safety issues the jury decided to call off the competition. At the end the overall results were determined by the qualifying round results from Wednesday.
In the ladies' competition top qualifier Marie Martinod (FRA) took her second win of the season as she strengthen her position on top of the halfpipe World Cup ranking.
"Looking at the weather forecast, we knew the finals could get cancelled," Martinod said following the award ceremony, "Together with my coach we decided to give it all in the qualifications, ski fast and jump high. It worked."
Martinod winning run from qualifications included a huge straight air tail grab followed by a back-to-back 540 safety, left and right flair safety and a left 900 safety to finish off her run with 94.00 points.
Second place of the day went to 2014 Sochi Olympic gold medalist Maddie Bowman, while Ayana Onozuka of Japan finished on third.
"I keep forgetting that this is an Olympic qualifier because it’s so far out but I’m pretty happy to be sitting where I am right now seeing as it is an Olympic qualifier," said Bowman, "Right now I’m just skiing and having fun."
In men's competition it was Torin Yater-Wallace who led the US sweep with Gus Kenworthy finishing on second and Taylor Seaton rounding out the podium on third.
It was a big win for Yater-Wallace, who has struggled with downtime due to illness and injury over the past few seasons and was dealing with a bruised heel through the event. The win at Mammoth was his seventh career World Cup podium, though the last one came at Copper Mountain back in 2014.
Yater-Wallace's run included a right double cork 1260 mute followed up by a left 1080 tail, switch right 720 mute, left 900 tail and right 900 tail on his last hit for a total score of 92.33 points.
Kenworthy scored his first podium of the year after winning the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix at Mammoth in 2016. “I don't think I prepared for this event any differently than I would have for any other event," the Telluride native said after the event. “The fact that it's an Olympic qualifier definitely adds a lot of pressure, but I tried not to think too much about the stakes at hand and just focused on landing my run.”
Seaton has an excellent showing with a run that featured two more tricks than most other skiers. “I’ve been dreaming of doing this run since I was 14 years old,” Seaton said. “I think it just had to do with a lot of work on fundamentals, doing alley-oop 180s and really just trying to ride the transition of the pipe to squeeze all seven hits in.”
In the overall World Cup standing Marie Martinod leads the way in ladies' field with 200 points, 75 points over the second Annalisa Drew (USA) and 90 points over third Ayana Onozuka.
On the men's side of things Kevin Rolland (FRA) still sits on top with 129 points, however his advantage over his teammate Ben Valentin now dropped to only 4 points. Following today's win Torin Yater-Wallace moved to third spot with 118 points after two competitions.
Mens slopestyle qualifiers and women and men's slopestyle finals are scheduled to go off on Sunday at Mammoth, pending weather.
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