2020 Burton US Open Wraps Up In Vail on The Weekend – Scotty James, 3rd in Halfpipe
Mountainwatch | Events
The 2020 Burton US Open finished in Vail, Colorado on the weekend, Australia’s Scotty James finishing 3rd in the halfpipe finals. James, the defending champion, qualified first for the finals but Japan’s Yuto Totsuka was too good on the day.
The three-run final was incredible, as the athletes pushed each other with flowing technical tricks on each run. Totsuka posted the winning score of 97.00 on his second run, which featured a McTwist into an alley oop rodeo 540 stalefish, blasting into a frontside 1440 double cork Indy grab, a switch frontside 1260 double cork mute grab and finishing with a massive switch backside 1080 double cork mute grab on the final hit.
Jan Scherrer (SUI) took second place with a score of 95.16. His run included a switch McTwist into a Haakon flip and a Miller flip in the modified mini-pipe, into a switch frontside 1080 double cork mute grab, a frontside 1260 double cork frontside grab, into a frontside alley oop 900 nose grab. Scotty James (AUS) earned third place with a score of 93.00 on his final run which included a massive switch backside double cork 1260.
In the women’s field, China’s Xuetong Cai won with a score of 88.16. Cai started her run with an Indy grab followed by an alley oop, a frontside 900 tuck knee grab, a backside 540 mute grab, to melon air to fakie. Haruna Matsumoto (JPN) took second place with a score of 85.50 on her flowing final run that included a giant frontside 1080 into a switch frontside 720. Ruki Tomita (JPN) took third place with a score of 85.00 including a frontside 900 melon and back to back 720s.
In the slopestyle Yuki Kadono (japan) landed two of the most exciting runs of the day with his second run earning the top score of 89.30. Dusty Henricksen (USA) took second place on his final run with a score of 84.70, with 2019 champ Red Gerard (USA) third.
In the women’s slopestyle two-time Olympic champion Jamie Anderson (USA) continued her excellent 2020 season with another win dropping an 84.50 on her first run which was never surpassed. Anna Gasser (AUT) earned second place and a score of 81.00 while Miyabi Onitsuka (JPN) took third place for the second consecutive year with a score of 76.65.
This year’s Burton Open carried extra emotional weight after the recent passing of Burton founder Jake Carpenter, who was honoured during a break in the men’s halfpipe semi-finals as a stream of riders representing 38 years of the Burton US Open dropped into the halfpipe. The field of riders featured some of the biggest names in the history of snowboarding, including Ross Powers, Tricia Byrnes, Danny Kass, Gretchen Bleiler, the Mitrani brothers, Shaun White, Kelly Clark, Danny Davis and many more, there to honour Jake Burton Carpenter, who Davis described as the most influential snowboarder in the world.
For full results and more videos of the event at Burton.com
