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Torah Bright beats Kelly Clark at 2013 Dew Tour women’s halfpipe

We haven’t seen a ton of Torah Bright lately, but the 2010 Olympic gold medalist came out swinging at the Dew Tour women’s pipe finals today at Breckenridge, Colorado. Dew Tour placements carry extra weight this season as the tour is the first qualifying stop for riders hoping to make the US Olympic Snowboard team.

Just the third rider of the contest to drop in, Torah laid down a giant McTwist into a melon-to-fakie to start things off. She continued on the next wall with a Cab 720 to frontside 540, followed by a smooth frontside alley-oop to backside alley-oop rodeo 540 to finish. Both smooth and technical, the run earned her a score of 95.40. Despite the likes of Gretchen Bleiler, Elena Hight, Kelly Clark, Kaitlyn Farrington, Arielle Gold, Chole Kim, and China’s Xuelong Cia trying to best that score, Torah’s first run held to the end.

Kelly Clark took the second spot with a first run that was arguably more technical than Torah’s, starting with a solid frontside air to backside 540. Next she put down a frontside 1080 to Cab 720. The slightly sketchy frontside 540 that followed was likely what caused her to loose some points but she recovered with a smooth method and finished with an inverted frontside 720. That run for Kelly was worth a 90.60.

Rounding out the third spot was 13-year-old Chloe Kim from Torrance, California. Although it’s possible that she’ll qualify for a spot on the US Olympic team this year, Chole is, unfortunately, not old enough to participate in the Olympics yet. But with runs like she put down today, she’ll without a doubt be looking ahead to the 2018 Games in Pyeonchang, South Korea.

For Chole, her third place finish came down to her last-chance second run. On her first hit she boosted a method followed by a massive frontside 540. Next, on the backside wall, she threw a McTwist to inverted frontside 720 before ending her run with a Cab 720 to frontside 720. All that was worth an 89.40, just over a point shy of Kelly’s score.

Stay tuned for the video interviews coming soon.

Kelly Clark: 1,000

Chole Kim: 800

Arielle Gold: 600

Kaitlyn Farrington: 500

Gretchen Bleiler: 450

Elena Hight: 400

Ellery Hollingsworth: 360

Maddy Schaffrick: 320

Serena Shaw: 290

Hannah Teter: 260

Kelly Berger: 240

Maddie Mastro: 220

Kelly Kirby: 200

Summer Fenton: 180

1. Torah Bright (Australia)

2. Kelly Clark (USA)

3. Chloe Kim (USA)

4. Arielle Gold (USA)

5. Kaitlyn Farrington (USA)

6. Gretchen Bleiler (USA)

7. Xuetong Cai (China)

8. Elena Hight (USA)