Snowboard World Cup season opens in Valle Nevado, Chile

Snowboard World Cup season opens in Valle Nevado, Chile{mosimage}Canada’s Drew Neilson and Zoe Gillings of Great Britain kicked off the 2004-2005 FIS Snowboard World Cup season with victories in the men’s and women’s snowboardcross events on September 16. The warm sun and spring-like conditions at Valle Nevado, Chile, led to soft afternoon snow after a fast, bumpy ride in the morning.

Gillings edged out Kathrin Kellenberger of Switzerland and Manuela Riegler of Austria. A slight bobble by U.S. rider Lindsey Jacobellis in the final heat left a crack for Gillings to slip through and resulted in Jacobellis pulling herself out of the safety netting. Jacobellis, a four-time SBX winner last season, finished the day in fourth. “I made a little mistake,” said Jacobellis. “I left too much room for Zoe to come in and I paid the price. Tomorrow I plan to stay tighter through that gate, but I did the best I could.” Marni Yamada of the U.S. qualified for the small final and finished eighth.

The news that Line Oestvold of Norway remained in critical condition with little improvement after a crash in training two days prior to the first snowboardcross event tempered much of the excitement about starting the season.

Still, the 12,000-foot altitude at Valle Nevado (or anything else) did little to slow Neilson, who bested Frenchman Xavier Delerue, Italian Simone Malusa and Mateusz Ligocki of Poland in the final heat. Nate Holland, who was passed just shy of the finish in the quarter-finals, was the top U.S. male in 13th. Teammate Seth Wescott followed close behind in 15th. Said head U.S. Snowboarding Peter Foley, “They [Holland and Wescott] just didn’t execute the way they needed to in order to win. It was a tight race, though.”

With more time in Chile to acclimate to the altitude and now one competition under their belt, the U.S. squad expects to improve their results in the second snowboardcross event on Friday, September 17. “We learned a lot from qualifications and from today’s races, and we will study the video and hopefully do better tomorrow,” said Foley.

Snowboard World Cup
Valle Nevado, Chile
September 16, 2004

WOMEN
1. Zoe Gillings, GBR
2. Kathrin Kellenberger, SUI
3. Manuela Riegler, AUS
4. Lindsey Jacobellis, USA

OTHER U.S. WOMEN
8. Marni Yamada, USA

MEN
1. DrewNeilson, CAN
2. Xavier Delerue, FRA
3. Simone Malusa, ITA
4. Mateusz Ligocki, POL

U.S. MEN
13. Nate Holland, USA
14. Seth Wescott, USA
25. Mike Rosengren, USA
27. Graham Watanabe, USA
31. Jayson Hale, USA
DNQ- Ben Jacobellis, USA
DNQ- Jeff Greenwood, USA