 Dakides clinches win on final run
by Daniel Dodd, ESPN.com
MOUNT SNOW, Vt. -- The first day of finals at Winter X Games 2000 proved to be memorable Thursday afternoon as Tara Dakides defended her 1999 gold medal in Snowboard Slopestyle and Kevin Jones barely edged out Todd Richards in the men's competition.
Numerous lead changes and athlete after athlete attempting backflips, rodeos, and everything else in the trick book, eventually led to a great competition between veterans Barrett Christy and Dakides in the final two runs of the women's competition taking place on Inferno Run.
|  | | Dakides was all smiles after claiming the gold medal in Slopestyle for the second year in a row. |
Christy, who turned 29 on Thursday, went all out in the third round, drawing an 80.00 from the judges. That was enough to boost her into third place behind second-place finisher and local favorite Jaime MacLeod, who drew an 81.83 with a solid top side run and clean landings. But in the final run of the competition, Dakides pulled off a near-flawless performance hitting a frontside tail grab off a quarterpipe, a clean 180. She finished to the roar of the crowd with a backflip that she landed perfectly.
The crowd, along with Dakides, waited in anticipation for the flash of the scoreboard to see if it would be enough for first place. When the 88.50 flashed on the screen, Dakides smiled, pumped her fist, and gave a big hug to her friend Christy.
Dakides was modest about her winning run.
"I'm just glad I got through it and didn't fall off that big-ass rail," said Dakides.
She wasn't sure, however, if it would be enough to vault her into the top spot.
"I was hoping it was but you never know, you never know."
It was apparent from the judging that clean, smooth riding was what the judges were looking for as opposed to big air and highly technical tricks.
|  | | Richards barely missed the gold medal with a dazzling performance in the Slopestyle. |
On the men's side, Kevin Jones and Todd Richards put on a show, complete with huge frontside heel grabs, 360 aerials and hands free landings. On the last run of the first round, Jones had the winning run with an 86.17. But on Richards' final run, he matched Jones jump for jump but came up .17 short in the judging, to take second place with an 86.00.
"I just try to go down and have fun. It's not halfpipe so I'm really stoked on it," said Richards. "There is no pressure on me. No one really expected me to do good at it. I just wanted to go out there and have fun, and I had a good time and ended up doing well so I'm really stoked."
Veteran Peter Line followed up two disappointing runs with a solid third round performance to claim third place with an 84.00.
One of the unexpected highlights of the Slopestyle competition was the performance of local snowboarder Kelly Clark of West Dover, Vt. Clark finished fourth in the women's competition but was the only female to score above 70 in all three of her runs. She was thrilled to perform so well for her hometown.
"It was great. I had fun. That was all I was really shooting for," said Clark. "I was definitely feeling the home crowd!"
Rounding out the top 10 for the women was No 5. Natasza Zurek (74.33), No. 6 Janna Meyen (74.17), No. 7 Krista Bradford (72.67), No. 8 Leslee Olson (67.00), No. 9 Jessica Dalpiaz (66.67), and No. 10 Megan Pischke (64.83).
The top 10 men included No. 4 Bjorn Leines (83.50), No. 5 Jeff Anderson (83.33), No. 6 Kurt Wastell (80.83), No. 7 Chad Otterstrom (80.67), No. 8 Joni Malmi (78.00), No. 9 Andrew Crawford (76.00) and No. 10 Aaron Bishop (75.83).
|
Men's Snowboarding Slopestyle results
|
| Place |
Name |
Run 1 |
Run 2 |
Run 3 |
Total |
| 1. |
Kevin Jones |
86.17 |
82.67 |
84.67 |
86.17 |
| 2. |
Todd Richards |
83.67 |
80.00 |
86.00 |
86.00 |
| 3. |
Peter Line |
38.50 |
66.67 |
84.00 |
84.00 |
| 4. |
Bjorn Leines |
69.50 |
71.83 |
83.50 |
83.50 |
| 5. |
Jeff Anderson |
79.17 |
80.17 |
83.33 |
83.33 |
| 6. |
Kurt Wastell |
71.50 |
70.00 |
80.83 |
80.83 |
| 7. |
Chad Otterstrom |
70.00 |
72.17 |
80.67 |
80.67 |
| 8. |
Joni Malmi |
76.67 |
70.50 |
78.00 |
78.00 |
| 9. |
Andrew Crawford |
65.17 |
76.00 |
74.67 |
76.00 |
| 10. |
Aaron Bishop |
56.50 |
75.83 |
54.33 |
75.83 |
| 11. |
Blaise Rosenthal |
65.33 |
71.00 |
72.33 |
72.33 |
| 12. |
Jason Borgstede |
42.00 |
50.83 |
71.67 |
71.67 |
| 13. |
Jimmy Halopoff |
68.17 |
69.50 |
70.83 |
70.83 |
| 14. |
Gian Simmen |
66.83 |
54.33 |
64.00 |
66.83 |
| 15. |
J.P. Walker |
50.50 |
66.50 |
65.00 |
66.50 |
| 16. |
Chris Engelsman |
54.00 |
65.83 |
54.00 |
65.83 |
| 17. |
Joni Makinen |
56.83 |
59.33 |
63.17 |
63.17 |
| 18. |
Ross Powers |
58.00 |
62.83 |
57.67 |
62.83 |
| 19. |
Jason Brown |
52.17 |
60.17 |
38.17 |
60.17 |
| 20. |
Jussi Oksanen |
50.67 |
52.17 |
57.00 |
57.00 |
| 21. |
Travis Parker |
44.33 |
49.17 |
53.67 |
53.67 |
| 22. |
Kevin Sansalone |
46.33 |
23.00 |
49.17 |
49.17 |
|
Women's Snowboarding Slopestyle results
|
| Place |
Name |
Run 1 |
Run 2 |
Run 3 |
Total |
| 1. |
Tara Dakides |
77.00 |
68.17 |
88.50 |
88.50 |
| 2. |
Jaime MacLeod |
68.50 |
81.83 |
72.33 |
81.83 |
| 3. |
Barrett Christy |
64.00 |
72.00 |
80.00 |
80.00 |
| 4. |
Kelly Clark |
72.33 |
74.67 |
74.17 |
74.67 |
| 5. |
Natasza Zurek |
67.67 |
47.17 |
74.33 |
74.33 |
| 6. |
Janna Meyen |
61.00 |
67.67 |
74.17 |
74.17 |
| 7. |
Krista Bradford |
72.67 |
62.00 |
70.33 |
72.67 |
| 8. |
Leslee Olson |
58.83 |
56.33 |
67.00 |
67.00 |
| 9. |
Jessica Dalpiaz |
66.33 |
66.67 |
63.50 |
66.67 |
| 10. |
Megan Pischke |
64.83 |
53.67 |
60.83 |
64.83 |
| 11. |
Minna Hesso |
46.50 |
61.33 |
63.67 |
63.67 |
| 12. |
Kimberly Bohnsack |
52.67 |
57.50 |
60.50 |
60.50 |
| 13. |
Marni Yamada |
58.17 |
57.33 |
49.33 |
58.17 |
| 14. |
Sara Osterberg |
53.00 |
50.00 |
44.17 |
53.00 |
| 15. |
Mica Fish |
53.00 |
37.83 |
46.83 |
53.00 |
|
