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.

Current World Champion Snowboarder Scotty James has made a strong start to his 2016-2017 northern hemisphere season, qualifying second in his heat to advance through to the halfpipe final at the US Snowboard Grand Prix/World Cup event in Copper Mountain, Colorado, USA.
 
Competing under the best of two runs format in the heat round, The Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) athlete produced his best in the second run, scoring 83.75 to secure one of the ten places available in the final.
 
Also in action in the men’s event for Australia, but unable to qualify for the final was Kent Callister in 15th and Nathan Johnstone 41st.
 
In the women’s event, NSWIS Youth Olympic Winter Games Silver Medallist Emily Arthur was unable to qualify for the six-person final, finishing in 19th place.
 
After the successful qualification round, James commented.
 
“Competed in some interesting conditions today, but pulled through. Excited for finals!”
 
The men’s Halfpipe Snowboard final featuring Scotty James will take place Friday afternoon in the USA, Saturday morning AEST.
 
 

A brilliant effort from 17-year-old Emily Arthur during last weekend's halfpipe final of the season opening 2016 U.S Revolution Tour, landed her in fourth place as she continued her outstanding push up the world rankings.

The talented Aussie who trains with the New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS), fought hard in a highly-contested event against Olympic standard athletes to score 110 points in the opening halfpipe competition of the season at Colorado's Copper Mountain.

Currently ranked 13th in the world, Arthur has been in solid form since her silver medal at the Lillehammer 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games and will be one to watch in the coming years as she works towards PyeongChang in 2018.
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In the Men’s field, Nathan Johnston finished with a score of 70.40 to sit in an impressive 8th in the final standings, while Scotty James and Kent Callister did not compete.

The event is the perfect warm-up to the Grand Prix World Cup later this week, also based at Copper Mountain, with all four Aussies competing.

Three Australians will be aiming to impress in the Snowboard Halfpipe as the 2017 U.S Revolution Tour kicks off tonight (AEDT) at Colorado’s Copper Mountain.

Scotty James, Kent Callister and Nathan Johnstone will all contest the first of four stops on the tour in Copper’s world class 19-meter superpipe, their first time on the pipe for the season.

James and Callister have both been training in New Zealand during Spring and will be keen to start the year off with success.

The start of the tour itself was interrupted due to unreasonably warm temperatures and delays in halfpipe construction, condensing the competition to just one halfpipe event instead of two.

In a statement on the official World Snowboard Tour (WST) website, USSA Director of Events Eric Webster said, “Weather has been a challenge this season but the Main Vein Superpipe upholds its reputation as one of the top venues in North America while the Rev Tour remains a top competition for these up-and-coming athletes.”

The national-level event brings together Olympic hopefuls who will earn points for their overall ranking in the WST.

22-year-old James, currently ranked 15th in the world, will headline the Aussie brigade, aiming to match his successful 2013/14 season where he finished 5th in the overall World Tour rankings.

The youngest of the three, 21-year-old Callister is ranked 26th and will be searching for a repeat of his success at the Tour in 2012 where he won best trick with a FS inverted 900. Johnstone is ranked 37th.

Qualification starts early morning Sunday, followed by the Final.

Keep your eye out in the Ladies for 17-year-old  Emily Arthur, one of Australia’s brightest talents who won Silver in the halfpipe at the Lillehammer 2016 Youth Olympic Games in February. Her qualification is at 2:30am, with the final starting at 3:50am.
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For more information on the Revolution Tour, visit www.ussnowboarding.com/revolutiontour