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White On Top In Innsbruck

Perfect conditions were on offer for the halfpipe finals at the 5Star Sprint U.S. Grand Prix at Park City Mountain Resort, the last event on the North American World Snowboard Tour schedule.

Perfect conditions were on offer for the halfpipe finals at the 5Star Sprint U.S. Grand Prix at Park City Mountain Resort, the last event on the North American World Snowboard Tour schedule.

Shaun White, who won gold in the 6Star X Games event was able to score an impressive 97.25 to take home another victory. White's second run in the Park City Mountain Resort pipe was both massive and technical. It included his huge signature backside air on his first hit followed by a frontside double cork 1080 into cab double cork 1080 to a very stylish front 5 stalefish. On his last two hits he threw down a flawless backside double mctwist 1260 and an alley-oop rodeo 540.

A fall in White's first run had Scotty Lago sitting in the top spot until the last run of the day; White's run. "The hard part was that the frontside wall has a lot of vert on it." White said of his fall, "it kept putting me at the bottom of the landing, it kills your speed, kills your motivation so after I planted my face on that double mctwist I vowed never to do that again."

Scotty Lago's second place run consisted of a cab double cork 1080 to a frontside 540 to a backside 900 mute into a frontside 900 nose to a backside 540 mute. His last hit was a unique frontside 1260 truckdriver that he struggled to put down smoothly at last week's X Games. Lago qualified into finals in the tenth position and then scored a 94.50 to put him on the podium, "I thought I really had a good shot today, that was the closest I have been to him in a while," Lago remarked. Lago's second place finish was enough to move him into second place in the World Snowboard Tour rankings for halfpipe.
Luke Mitrani was able to better his fourth place qualification score to round out the podium in third place. Mitrani started things out with a backside indy into a frontside double cork 1080 followed by a cab double cork 1080 into a frontside 9 tail. He finished off his run with a perfectly executed double michaelchuck. With Mitrani on the podium and Greg Bretz and Louie Vito following closely behind it made for an impressive top five sweep for the USA.

Now that the halfpipe athletes have completed the North American leg of the circuit until the 6Star Burton Open on February 25th, they will migrate to Laax, Switzerland to compete in the 6Star Burton European Open that takes place on February 4th to 9th.

Results:
1. Shaun White USA 97.25
2. Scotty Lago USA 94.503. Luke Mitrani USA 91.75
4. Greg Bretz USA 89.00
5. Louie Vito USA 87.25
6. Scott James AUS 82.75
7. Ben Ferguson USA 80.00
8. Dimi DE Jong NED 58.75
9. Yiwei Zhang CHN 54.25
10. Ben Kilner GBR 51.00
11. Taylor Gold USA 45.50
12. Zachary Black USA 39.00