Ronin Snowboards

NSW, Australia - It was another epic day at Perisher Blue for the fourth and final day of the Garnier Fructis Australian Open 2007. The men and women assembled early Saturday morning for the Halfpipe Semi-Final and Final competitions. However, the blazing sun down under made for challenging pipe conditions, causing course officials to revise the schedule and combine the semis and finals. The field of 16 female and 40 male semi-finalists each took two runs, the top 8 women and 16 men were then given one additional run. Final results were based on the best run of the three.

The ladies were the first to drop and Kelly Clark was looking strong from the start. Her run started out with a huge frontside air that was followed by an equally massive method. She then spun a front 5, which was followed by a backside mute, front 7 and ended with a Cab 3. Juliane Bray from New Zealand was sitting in second after her first run. Burton rider Bray busted a lofty mute on her first hit, which was followed by a front 5 indy, into a back 5, followed by a frontside air, stalefish, air to fakie and finished with a Cab 3. Elena Hight and Yuki Furihata were both upping the ante, but neither was able to dislodge the ladies from their podium positions. However, Elizabeth Beerman had other plans. She was on fire during her second run, stomping a massive first hit method, followed by a front 5 indy, into a back 5, front 7, Cab 3, and finished with an air-to-fakie melon. With that, Beerman bumped Bray to third and took the two spot. Elizabeth is currently the leader in the Burton Global Open Series standings, which will determine the winner of the $100,000 at the US Open in March.

Halfpipe Womens Results:
1.Kelly Clark USA
2.Elizabeth Beerman USA
3.Juliane Bray NZE
4.Elena High USA
5.Yuki Furihata JPN
6.Jamie Anderson USA
7.Hannah Trigger AUS
8.Jenny Jones GBR
9.Alison Deane AUS
10.Erin Tanner AUS

New Zealand Open Halfpipe Champion and Kiwi Mitch Brown sat in the second slot after the first round of semi-finals were complete. His run started with impressive back-to-back 9, followed by a front 7, into a Haakon flip 7 and ended with an ally-oop Michalchuk flip 540. But Andy Finch was the man to beat, after his first run of the day Andy lead the pack by a massive 10 point margin. Andy busted an enormous Heave-Ho on the first hit of his second run, followed by a front 10, into a Cab 7, to a backside Ally-oop 360, and finished with an Ally-oop Rodeo 3. Lucky 7 Louie Vito had one chance to redeem himself after falling on his first run. And redeem himself he did, Louie put together a killer second run that started with a front 10, followed by a Cab 7, into a front 9 tail grab, frontside ally-oop 360 and finished with an ally-oop rodeo 360. That run vaulted Vito into second place, knocking Brown down to third.

Halfpipe Mens Results:
1.Andy Finch USA
2. Louie Vito USA
3. Mitchell Brown NZE
4. Torstein Horgomo NOR
5. Kazuchiro Kokubo JPN3
6. Nathan Johnstone AUS
7. Michał Ligocki POL
8. Kosuke Hosokawa JPN
9. Mason Aguirre USA
10. Toni-Markus Turunen USA