Carroll and Schattschneider victorious at Calgary Slopestyle

Allyson Carroll (USA) and Clemens Schattschneider (AUT) have won the 2011 Snowboard FIS World Cup season’s first slopestyle competition held today at Canada Olympic Park, Calgary.

The US girl earned 21.0 points in the women’s final of the best six thus relegating last year’s second ranked Brooke Voigt (CAN, 18.3) and Pia Meusburger (AUT, 15.4) to the second and third place respectively. On the men’s side, Schattschneider, who had dominated yesterday’s qualifiers, also dominated the slopestyle finals by scoring 27.4 points. Canada’s Robby Balharry (26.3) and Zachary Stone (25.6) rounded out the podium as second and third.

However, Schattschneider had to go through hard times before finally putting all ingredients needed together to cook the winning dish. The 19-years-old, who not only celebrated his first World Cup win but also took over the lead in the Big Air-Slopestyle World Cup ranking, crashed in his first run at kicker #2 thus being forced to go big or go home in his second run.

“I certainly was under pressure but then said to myself, that I should just do it as it always had worked out in the training, too. That fortunately worked out. So, I’m pretty happy.” The regular rider, who admitted that he didn’t sleep that good last night, set the bar to high for his competitors by killing it with cab 270 to frontside boardslide on the downrail, cab 360 bonk on the Oakley-O, blunt frontside 270 out, 270 on 270 off the canon pole as well as backside 900 to switch backside 900 and frontside 720 melon in the kicker section.

While Zach Stone, the leading man after run one, face-slammed his cab 1080 double cork attempt at the second kicker, Robby Balharry was the only one out of the top ranked riders who bettered up his score in the second run – although he also wasn’t able to counter the score of Schattschneider.

However, having earned his best World Cup result ever, the 20-years-old was pretty pleased after he sticked his run consisting of backside lipslide, 50-50 backside 180 out, halfcab tailpress, tailslide 270 out as well as frontside 720, backside 900 and cab 1080. “I gave all I had and it luckily worked out. I had a pretty fun day as my family and some of my friends were here to watch.”

While on the men’s side, the according to the training and qualifier impressions odds on favorite claimed victory, Carroll, the number 4 qualifier on the women’s side surprised her competition as well as herself. “I didn’t expect this to happen. Not a tiny little bit. I dislocated haven’t been ridding for three weeks.”

Well, the 22-years-old from Northstar at Tahoe, who currently isn’t part of any US team rooster, impressed the judges with frontside boardslide to boardslide, 50-50 backside 180 out, switch boardslide as well as backside grab, backside 360 and backside 540 in the kicker section.

The Snowboard FIS World Cup currently continues with the season’s fourth halfpipe contest also taking place at COP, Calgary.