First Grand Prix Wins for Beauchemin and Langland
MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN, CA (Feb. 4, 2015) – Eric Beauchemin (Grand Blanc, MI) and Hailey Langland (San Clemente, CA) took home top honors in slopestyle snowboarding at the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix, each nabbing the first major wins of their careers. Wind was a major factor in the competition, resulting in an abbreviated women’s event and a challenging men’s competition.
Fourteen-year-old Langland, in her first Grand Prix appearance, put down a clean qualifying run, landing a cab 540 underflip to backside 180 combo that put her in the top spot just ahead of Austria’s Anna Gasser and Finnish rider Enni Rukajarvi, who is the current World Snowboard Tour (WST) Pro Series leader. Langland's first major event win also moved her in to the top five of the WST Pro Series ranking.
“I was so star struck,” said Langland. “To come out and pull off a run was amazing”.
On the men’s side, Japanese rider Yuki Kadono and French Canadian Sebastien Toutant led the pack for the majority of the day but Beauchemin stepped up to the plate on his third and final run, stomping a cab 1260 that he had struggled to land in his first two finals run.
“It’s finals, you’ve got to go for it,” Beauchemin said in between runs one and two. “You can’t play it safe at this level.”
Kadono and Toutant, while adjusting for weather changes, didn’t exactly play it safe either, with Kadono landing a frontside double 1080 and backside 1260 and Toutant landing a frontside and backside double 1080s.
Beauchemin’s first place win also moves him into third place in the WST Pro Series ranking.Tyler Nicholson from Canada, who finished fourth in today’s competition, is now the current leader on the WST Pro Series ranking.
Competition continues Feb. 5 with halfpipe qualifiers starting at 9 a.m. Live scoring is available on EIM. All Sprint U.S. Grand Prix finals will be live streamed on NBC Sports Live Extra.
HIGHLIGHTS
- This was the first Grand Prix win for both Eric Beauchemin and Hailey Langland
- While the men were able to complete the entire final with three runs, it was decided that, due to weather conditions, the women would use their qualification results as final results.
- Langland’s Winning run: Boardslide, Nosepress Tailgrab out, backside 180 off the pole jam, Cab 540 underfilp Stalefish, Backside 180.
- Beauchemin’s winning run: Switch tailslide 270, cab 270 in 450 out, cab 180 backside 540, cab 1260 Indy, Frontside 1080 Mute.
- Enni Rukajarvi took over the lead for the WST Pro Series ranking.
- Tyler Nicholson took over the lead for WST Pro Series ranking.
QUOTES
Eric Beauchemin, Men’s slopestyle winner
It was a big struggle the whole day to land but just I tried to calm down and have fun and it kind of came down to that. And I landed. It was definitely nerve wracking [not landing my first two runs] and I was trying to decide to do a mellower run because not many people were landing and I went for it and it worked out. I knew if I landed I’d be pretty close. I didn’t think I’d be first, that was a big surprise.
Hailey Langland, Women’s slopestyle winner
It’s amazing to win, I was so happy to be surrounded by all the girls I’ve looked up to my entire life. I was so starstruck and to come out and pull off a run was amazing, honestly.
I was definitely nervous, but just getting to meet all the girls and ride with them and having fun with all of them was great. It was like it wasn’t a contest.
Sebastien Toutant, Third place, men’s slopestyle
The course was really fun. The sun came out it’s been really windy. It was not the run I was looking to land, but I was really stoked to end up on the third spot. Everyone rode really well, it was just a really tough day.
It was cool to see a contest without triples and to just see everyone throwing down and who has the best tricks on the rails.
Results
Men’s final results
Women’s final results
World Snowboard Tour Ranking List
LIVE STREAMING SCHEDULE (Times EST)
Feb. 6 – 1:30 p.m. (Halfpipe skiing finals)
Feb. 7 – 1:00 p.m. (Halfpipe snowboarding finals)
Feb. 7 – 4:30 p.m. (Slopestyle skiing finals)
BROADCAST SCHEDULE (times EST)
NBCSN – Feb. 7 – 12:30-2:00PM (Halfpipe skiing/slopestyle snowboarding)
NBC – Feb. 8 – 4:00-5:00 PM (Halfpipe snowboarding)
NBCSN – Feb. 8 – 6:00-7:00PM (Slopestyle skiing)
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