Murase grabs first World Cup win while Toutant makes his Olympic team case at the Calgary Snow Rodeo
Jan 01, 2022·Snowboard Park & Pipe
The 2021/22 slopestyle opened in epic fashion on Saturday in Calgary (CAN), where Kokomo Murase (JPN) and Sebastien Toutant (CAN) put down stellar runs to ring in the New Year on a high with victories at the Snow Rodeo presented by Swatch and Toyota.
It was a frigid week of weather in Calgary leading up to Saturday’s finals, with the temperatures hovering around -20c (or lower) through training and Friday’s qualifications. However, the top eight women and 16 men on the startlist for finals were welcomed by warming temps and clear skies on Saturday, and with the Stomping Grounds’ Charles Beckinsale-built course running perfectly the stage was set for an excellent show.
MURASE GRABS FIRST WORLD CUP SLOPESTYLE WIN
Murase opened the 2021/22 season in impressive fashion at the Big Air Chur World Cup back in October by capturing her first career World Cup win. On Saturday the 16-year-old reached another career milestone when she opened the 2022 calendar year with her first career slopestyle World Cup win here in Calgary.
Murase fired up her first run on the rails with a stylish boardslide pretzel, into a half-cab 50-50 frontside 360 out, and then a gap lipslide 270 out on the Toyota rail feature.
Flowing into the jumps, Murase then stomped an off-axis frontside 720 tail grab, into a backside 720 weddle grab, and then finished off her run with a crippler melon grab on the final Swatch side-hit for a score of 77.58 and the first of two Japanese podiums on the day.
“Today was really tough, because I was really nervous before the competition,” said Murase before receiving her traditional Snow Rodeo cowboy hat at the awards ceremony, “But I’m so happy to win my first slopestyle World Cup today.”
Second place went to Murase’s compatriot Miyabi Onitsuka, as the Japanese team’s most veteran woman grabbed her first slopestyle World Cup podium in almost exactly three years, riding with a confidence that we haven’t seen from her lately. Stomping a perfect half-cab on backside 360 out on the second rail followed by a heavy 50-50 transfer to frontside boardslide on the Toyota rail, and then going cab 900 melon, backside 720 weddle and finally a classic frontside 360 indy to finish things off, Onitsuka earned second place with a score of 77.18 - just half a point back of Murase.
Third place on the women’s side went to Canada’s own Laurie Blouin, as the winner of the Snow Rodeo last time it was in town back in 2019/20 once again grabbed a piece of the podium with some more consistently strong riding.
With a rail section punctuated by a 50-50 transfer to frontside lipslide on the Toyota rail, Blouin would then stomp a huge cab double underflip 900 on the first jump, into a frontside 720 tail on the second hit, and a crippler indy to finish things off with a score of 75.73 and the ninth podium of her World Cup career.
With her victory, Murase moved to the top of the FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe overall standings with 236 points, followed by her teammate Reira Iwabuchi in second with 172, and Anna Gasser (AUT) in third with 160.
TOUTANT MAKES PUSH FOR OLYMPIC SPOT WITH CLUTCH VICTORY
On the men’s side of things, Sebastien Toutant came into competition at Calgary on the outside looking in of the Canadian men’s Olympic team picture, behind the likes of Max Parrot, Mark McMorris, Darcy Sharpe and Liam Brearley - despite the fact he won big air gold for his country at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics.
On Saturday the 29-year-old muscled his way back into the Canadian team conversation in a big way, with either one of his two outstanding runs being enough to give him the victory on the day.
Run one ended up being the slightly higher-scoring of the two, and it began with a hardway 270 on to regular on the first down rail, into a front blunt 450 off on the flat rail, and then a hardway cab 270 gap boardslide to switch on the Toyota rail.
Moving on to the jumps, Toutant started out with a cab 1260 tail grab, into a backside 1260 weddle - spinning off the heels in a way that few snowboarders on earth would even conceive of attempting - and finished things off with a switch backside rodeo 900 weddle to earn a score of 86.86, as well as his first World Cup victory in almost two years and a very real chance of representing his country at what would be his third Olympic Winter Games.
“It’s huge,” said Toutant on the importance of his victory on Saturday, “I needed a good result today. I definitely want to go back to the Olympics but I’ve been kinda sitting outside of that fourth spot for Canada, so I think I needed like a top four today to get back in the mix. Definitely winning this comp puts in me in a much better spot.
“I’m super stoked. We don’t get to compete in Canada that often, but it’s been pretty cold this week so maybe that’s a good thing (laughing). No, I’m just stoked to put it down today and get the win.”
Norway’s Mons Roisland grabbed the second podium of his World Cup season thus far with a clutch second-place performance, falling hard in his first run but getting back up for his second run and stomping a switch boardslide 270 out through the kinked rail, into a fakie hardway 270 on to 270 off, then a frontside 180 boardslide switch backside 360 out to finish off the rails.
On the jumps Roisland stomped a switch backside 1260 weddle, into a frontside 1440 melon, and finally into an alley-oop backside 1260 weddle on the final hit for a score of 84.50.
Rounding out the men’s podium was the USA’s Luke Winkelmann, as the recently-turned 21-year-old put down one of the most exciting runs of the day with his trademark loose style to capture the first World Cup podium of his career.
With a frontside 180 up, half-cab on switch backside 360 out on the butterbox to down rail highlighting his rail section, Winkelmann then went frontside 1260 tail grab, switch backside triple cork 1440 weddle, and finally a cab double cripple 900 on the Swatch hit for a score of 83.20 and a landmark result in his career.
“After not putting down what I wanted on my second run and waiting down here for eight more riders, that was one of the more intimidating and nerve-wracking things I think I’ve been through,” said Winkelmann when the results were in, “I’ve always wanted a World Cup podium, it’s just been a dream, and that was really hectic (waiting for the other riders to do their runs). But we prevailed and that was crazy. Mark McMorris, you never want him dropping last to knock you out. That’s where he thrives, is under that pressure. So I was nervous, but I’m just so stoked right now.”
With his second-place result, Roisland now sits atop the men’s Park & Pipe overall standings with 160 points, followed by Su Yiming (CHN) with 140, and Mark McMorris with 127.
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