Laax, January 17, 2020. On today's LAAX OPEN Slopestyle final day, the weather was once again at its best, putting smiles on the faces of the audience. Julia Marino (USA) and Sebastien Toutant (CAN) are the first LAAX OPEN winners of the new decade and can each look forward to CHF 25,000.
In the women's top 6, American Julia Marino set the bar extremely high with her first run on the innovative course, including a backside 900 melon, a cab double underflip mute, and a frontside 720 mute on the kicker line. The judges rewarded her with the day's highest score of 81.30 points. None of the other riders came close to this score. "It was the best week of my life. The weather was perfect, the course was amazing, and the trick level was incredibly high," said Julia Marino about her first LAAX OPEN title. Reira Iwabuchi from Japan and Katie Ormerod from GBR completed the podium in second and third place. The youngest competitor in the field, Annika Morgan from Germany, narrowly missed out on the podium, finishing in fourth place.
The men's final was exciting right up to the end, with Olympic slopestyle champion Red Gerard (USA) leading for a long time. Then the 2018 Olympic big air champion, Sebastien Toutant (CAN), trumped him with a perfect second run that included a backside 1440 mute and a frontside 1080 mute on the last feature. Seb Toutant had already won the Burton European Open Junior Jam in LAAX in 2008. He received 87.25 points for his run today, knocking Norway's Staale Sandbech off the podium. Alongside runner-up Red Gerard, his compatriot Justus Henkes was delighted to take third place. Sebastien Toutant on his victory: "I've been coming to LAAX for many years and I'm proud to finally win here. It's just fantastic and a perfect start to the new year."
Tomorrow at noon, the LAAX OPEN 2020 will continue with the first TAG TEAM Crossover Slopestyle Session. The event will culminate in the Halfpipe Night Final at Crap Sogn Gion.
Slopestyle women's results:
- Julia Marino, USA, 81.30
- Reira Iwabuchi, JPN, 76.95
- Katie Ormerod, GBR, 64.20
- Annika Morgan, GER, 58.43
- Hailey Langland, USA, 45.85
- Laurie Blouin, CAN, 44.05
Men's slopestyle results:
- Sebastien Toutant, Canada, 87.25
- Red Gerard, USA, 85.45
- Justus Henkes, USA, 82.33
- Staale Sandbech, NOR, 81.53
- Sven Thorgren, SWE, 81.46
- Luke Winkelmann, USA, $75.00
- Fridtjof Tischendorf, NOR, 70.18
- Ryan Stassel, USA, 56, 13
- Dusty Henricksen, USA, 39.63
- Mons Roisland, NOR, 31.66
- Lyon Farrell, USA, 28.56
- Kyle Mack, USA, 26.81
Event website:www.laax.com/open
Results:https://open.laax.com/de/resultlists/
