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Superpipe turns into a Batchelor party

Cold, wind no obstacle for elite skiers and snowboarders
1517pipe
Even Harder than it Looks New Hampshire's Tucker Perkins airs out in the Saturday's windy, icy Superpipe and SuperHit competition.

On the morning of the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival superpipe finals a quick check on the Whistler-Blackcomb website revealed temperatures of -20 degrees Celsius at the peak, and winds of about 40 km/h.

While the weather didn’t keep the spectators from crowding the competition site, the skiers and riders were reluctantly forced to tone down their runs to avoid landing on the icy deck or bottom of the pipe.

The snowboarders were up first, which meant colder temperatures but less wind than the skiers had to contend with.

Once again the Japanese team was out in force, and picked up most of the podiums on the men’s and women’s side. The exception this year was the performance of Ontario’s Jeff Batchelor, who showed why he’s one of Canada’s top prospects with a second place finish in the regular superpipe contest, and the win in the athlete-judged SuperHit competition.

Although the conditions weren’t what he expected, Batchelor made the most of it.

“It was a pretty sick day all in all,” he said. “It was sunny. It was also a little windy, but you know what, we can deal with it. Everybody pushed it as far as they could, and I ended up in second overall, so I’m pretty happy.”

Batchelor won the SuperHit contest after landing a few big backside 1080s. His best trick right now is a corked frontside 900, which he says helped him to place second.

“I’m glad I managed to pull it out of the bag and secure a spot on the podium,” he said. “The riders were really pushing it, so I knew I needed to fit that trick in my last run and do it cleanly.”

Although he could well be facing some of the Japanese riders on the World Cup circuit or even at the Olympics, Batchelor says the contest was all about having some fun at the end of his season.

“It’s the end of a long season, and everybody is kind of over competing,” he said. “Somehow I managed to keep up the hype to the end, and end on a high note. For me the competition is just another part of the festival — to sum it up in one sentence, it’s a big party with a little snowboarding on the side. Getting some of the best of the best out made it a great event.”

Batchelor’s score was an 18.5 out of 20, which he made on the last of his four runs. He was 0.4 points back of Murakami Fumiyuki of Japan. Kazuumi Fujita of Japan was third with a 17.7.

Nate Johnstone of Australia just missed the podium, finishing in fourth place. Whistler’s Ryan Rausch was fifth. Other Whistler riders in the final were Korath Wright seventh, Brad Martin eighth, and Case Conway in 13 th place.

On the women’s side it was all-Japan, with Shiho Nakashima first with a 17.4, Naho Mizuki second with a 16.5, and Rana Okada third with a 16.1.

Squamish-based riders Dominique Vallée, Sarah Conrad and Katie Tsuyuki both made the final, placing fifth, seventh and 10 th respectively.

The wind picked up for the skiers’ superpipe contest, which was all about clean landings — any mistakes and it was nearly impossible to recover in time to hit the next wall.

On the men’s side, Tucker Perkins from North Hampton, New Hampshire established himself as the guy to beat on his second run. He scored an 18.3 out of 20 with a run that included a corked 1080 to a switch 720 flat spin.

“It was a big mental game today,” said the 17-year-old Perkins. “I just tried to stay relaxed, stay focused, and land every run, and I couldn’t be happier.”

Perkins then went on to win the SuperHit contest, where riders pumped up the level of difficultly and tricks — like switch 1260 spins, and giant corked 900s. Whistler skiers Sean Pettit and Simon D’Artois were particularly aggressive, but nobody could top Perkins’s trick — a relatively simple, but huge 540 Japan Air.

“I don’t know how high I went out of the pipe. I almost don’t want to know, but it was pretty big and I was psyched I landed it,” he said. “It was athlete-judged, so I was stoked to get the respect of all the other athletes.”

While the wind and the promised hard landings prompted skiers to pull back, Perkins was happy with the pipe.

“The pipe was a lot better than last year because of all the snow, and I know everybody was really pumped on it — it was perfectly cut, and the walls were a lot bigger. The wind was a bit of a bummer, I know we all could have gone twice as big easily without the wind and it would have been a great show.”

Placing a close second to Perkins was Xavier Bertoni of France, the skier who landed the switch 1260 in the SuperHit final. Third place went to Vernon’s Justin Dorey, fourth to Nevada’s David Wise, and fifth to 2007 champion Mike Riddle.

Whistler skiers in the final were Kevin Labatte, who was eighth, Simon D’Artois, 19 th , and Sean Pettit 20 th .

On the women’s side, once again Sarah Burke was the skier to beat. Although she had problems with her first two runs, she had the contest in the bag by her third run. Her fourth run, which featured a 1080 to 540 to 720 combo, was good for a score of 17.9. Jessica Cumming of the U.S. was second with a 176.2, followed by Virginie Faivre of Swtizerland with a 15.8.

Top prize in the men’s superpipe was $10,000, with $5,000 for second, $3,000 for third, $1,000 for fourth and $500 for fifth. Perkins also picked up $2,000 for winning the SuperHit competition.

For the women, prizes were $5,000 for first, $2,500 for second, and $1,500 for third.