| Calgarian Rosalind Groenewoud places second at the 2010 European Winter X Games |
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Rosalind Groenewoud takes silver at Euro X Tignes, France - The final skiing event of the 2010 European Winter X Games was the women's ski halfpipe final. Large crowds and a perfect pipe made for some exciting and progressive runs, as the field of eight finalists threw down hard in front of the judges and fans. Canada was represented by Sarah Burke, Dania Assaly, and Rosalind Groenewoud. Also training with the team for this event was Alberta Team member Megan Gunning, who deserves props for competing during the middle of a nasty bout of tonsillitis, and still having the tenacity to attempt a corked 1080. Groenewoud, who is from Calgary, continued down the path that has been consistently putting her on the podium all season, going huge on her first hit, and carrying that momentum into the rest of her run. After putting in a "safe" run on the first of her three chances, Groenewoud stepped up her game for runs 2 and 3, replacing a 540 with a 900, and finishing her run with a fantastic switch 540. Her performance earned her second place and the silver medal. Assaly was skiing well all evening, but had troubles with consistency on her first two runs. In her final run, she pulled it all together like a champ, stomping a clean 900 midway down the pipe. Assaly did bi-directional 540s on opposing walls, as well as a really nice 720 on her final hit. Her style and performance was rewarded in the end with fifth place. A great performance from Assaly, especially considering the fact that a foot injury at the start of the week had her questioning whether or not she would even be able to compete. Burke was, without question, performing the most difficult run of the event. In fact, it's fair to say her run was the most technical combination of tricks to ever be attempted by any female halfpipe skier. Despite landing all of her tricks at some point throughout the "best of three" run final, she never did get them all stomped cleanly in the same run. Her score was enough to put her in sixth place, but her performance and obvious desire to continually progress women's freeskiing was noted and appreciated by all, as she received some of the loudest cheers of the event for her efforts. Women's halfpipe finals results: Courtesy, Canadian Halfpipe Ski Team |
