Basalt’s Smith sails into snowboard x quarterfinals

ASPEN ” Basalt Olympian Jason Smith cruised into the Winter X Games 12 snowboarder X quarterfinals with the second fastest run on Friday in the elimination round.

Smith, who took sixth in snowboard cross (the Olympic version of snowboarder X) in the 2006, finished with a time of 1 minute, 4.483 seconds on Friday, second only to Austria’s Markus Schairer, who crossed the line at 1:00.512.

Carbondale’s Ross Trulove didn’t make the cut, finishing 10th in the second run where only the top six advanced. Another Carbondale rider, Cleve Johnson, who was hoping to get in to the X Games as an alternate, did not get a chance to race.

Seth Wescott, the 2006 snowboarder cross gold medalist, placed sight at 1:05.779 while Nate Holland, the two-time defending champion gold medalist, finished eighth with a time of 1:06.538. Shaun Palmer, the Winter X Games’ oldest athlete at 39-years-old, was 12th at 1:07.036.

The quarterfinals will start at 1 p.m. on Saturday, where the top three riders will automatically go to the finals. The next best 12 from the quarterfinals run, not including the top three already in the finals, will race in the semifinals where the fastest three will go on to the finals, which contests of one heat and one run.

Qualifying Results from Aspen/Snowmass on Friday, January 25, 2008

Run One – Top 18 advance to brackets:

Name / Bib No. / Hometown / Score

1. Markus Schairer / 704 / St. Gallenkirch, Austria / 100.512

2. Jason Smith / 732 / Basalt, Colo. / 104.483

3. Rob Fagan / 738 / Squamish, BC, Canada / 104.602

4. Graham Watanabe / 723 / Sun Valley, Idaho / 104.849

5. Mario Fuchs / 711 / Zell Am See, Austria / 105.316

6. Seth Wescott / 733 / Sugarloaf, Maine / 105.779

7. Nick Baumgartner / 710 / Iron River, Mich. / 106.287

8. Nate Holland / 747 / Truckee, Calif. / 106.538

9. Paul Henri de le Rue / 728 / Saint Lary, France / 106.427

10. Jonathan Cheever / 701 / Saugus, Mass. / 106.663

11. David Speiser / 742 / Oberstdorf, Germany / 106.996

12. Shaun Palmer / 721 / South Lake Tahoe, Calif. / 107.036

13. Simone Malusa / 748 / Courmayeur, Italy / 107.161

14. Derek Wintermans / 743 / Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada / 107.212

15. Ben Jacobellis / 720 / Stratton, Vt. / 107.270

16. Michael Layer / 730 / Oberstenfeld, Germany / 107.355

17. Pat Holland / 702 / Tahoe City, Calif. / 107.431

18. Ludovic Guillot-Diat / 729 / Villard de Lans, France / 107.733

Run Two – Top six advance to quarterfinals:

Name / Bib No. / Hometown / Score

1. Michael Novotny / 713 / Prague, Czech Republic / 107.408

2. Drew Neilson / 703 / Vernon, BC, Canada / 108.006

3. Tom Velisek / 715 / Squamish, BC, Canada / 108.229

4. Alex Pullin / 731 / Mansfield, Australia / 108.506

5. Damon Hayler / 739 / Sydney, Australia / 108.963

6. Mateusz Ligocki / 740 / Cieszyn, Poland / 109.732

7. Stian Sivertzen / 722 / Kongsberg, Norway / 110.039

8. Pierre Vaultier / 705 / Briancon, France / 110.453

9. Mike Robertson / 741 / Canmore, AB, Canada / 111.184

10. Ross Trulove / 750 / Carbondale, Colo. / 111.394

11. Konstantin Schad / 749 / Rosenheim, Germany / 112.320

12. Alberto Schiavon / 714 / Madonna di Campiglio, Italy / 115.528