Scotty James dealing with snowy conditions in Colorado (IMAGE: Scotty James Instagram) Current World Champion Snowboarder Scotty James has made a strong start to his 2016-2017 northern hemisphere season, finishing fourth in the halfpipe final at the US Snowboard Grand Prix/World Cup event in Copper Mountain, Colorado, USA.
Competing in the best of three run final, the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) athlete produced his best in the third run, scoring 88.75 to narrowly miss out on the podium.
Ahead of Scotty where Swiss riders Patrick Burgener and 2014 Olympic Champion Iouri Podladtchikov, who took out the first two places of the podium withh American Chase Josey in third.
Post-race, James said he was happy with the result despite the weather and equipment issues, grateful for his best off-season to date.
"Due to the weather, my snowboards I was riding through practise couldn't cut it on Semi-Finals day. I ended up riding my coach James Jacksons snowboard in Semi finals which was 10cms too short and a board I have never ridden before," he explained.
"For finals I rode a two year old board I pulled from the archives but with a strong preparation for the season, nothing was gonna stop me!"
"Would have been great to finish on the podium but I'm fired up and ready for the next competition in LAAX."
James will head back home to Warrandyte in Victoria for Christmas, before jumping straight back onto a plane to the US to begin his next preparation.
In the women's final, teenage sensation Chloe Kim took first place with Chinese athletes Jiayu Liu and Xuetong Cai in second and third place.
The qualification round took place a few days earlier, featuring Kent Callister, Nathan Johnstone and Emily Arthur. Unfortunately all three athletes where unable progress to the final, with Kent and Nathan finishing in 15th and 41st place with Emily 19th.
Competing in the best of three run final, the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) athlete produced his best in the third run, scoring 88.75 to narrowly miss out on the podium.
Ahead of Scotty where Swiss riders Patrick Burgener and 2014 Olympic Champion Iouri Podladtchikov, who took out the first two places of the podium withh American Chase Josey in third.
Post-race, James said he was happy with the result despite the weather and equipment issues, grateful for his best off-season to date.
"Due to the weather, my snowboards I was riding through practise couldn't cut it on Semi-Finals day. I ended up riding my coach James Jacksons snowboard in Semi finals which was 10cms too short and a board I have never ridden before," he explained.
"For finals I rode a two year old board I pulled from the archives but with a strong preparation for the season, nothing was gonna stop me!"
"Would have been great to finish on the podium but I'm fired up and ready for the next competition in LAAX."
James will head back home to Warrandyte in Victoria for Christmas, before jumping straight back onto a plane to the US to begin his next preparation.
In the women's final, teenage sensation Chloe Kim took first place with Chinese athletes Jiayu Liu and Xuetong Cai in second and third place.
The qualification round took place a few days earlier, featuring Kent Callister, Nathan Johnstone and Emily Arthur. Unfortunately all three athletes where unable progress to the final, with Kent and Nathan finishing in 15th and 41st place with Emily 19th.
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