Say what you like about FIS – and yes, it was bullshit they scheduled their World Championships over the same dates as the X Games, generally acknowledged as the biggest event on the snowboarding calender – they would never interrupt slopestyle finals to show snowmobiling. Never.

Mark McMorris will leave Aspen tomorrow with two gold medals, the other from Friday night’s Big Air event.

That aside, it was another final result that will have people talking for a while: Mark McMorris pipped Stale Sandbech‘s first run by a point, a point that many could argue wasn’t merited. Whilst both had different approaches to the rail section that are admittedly hard to compare, Stale’s jump line consisting of a cab 1260, frontside 1440 and back triple 1440 was definitely way ahead of what looks like the same stock McMorris run from three years ago.

Not that his switch backside 12, front double 10 and back triple booter section is to be sniffed at, not at all, but it does come across as slightly stale whilst the likes of Sage Kotsenburg are eurocarving into handplants and throwing back 1260s off the heels. It would have been interesting indeed to see how the judges would’ve scored him if he’d got a full run down.

Still, credit where credit is dude, Mark McMorris will leave Aspen tomorrow with not only two gold medals, the other from Big Air, but a stack of great footage courtesy of the Shredbots.

Sven Thorgren got third place with his first run, his cab 1260 roast beef/tail grab and flat spun 1440 becoming part of another run that could’ve easily pipped the top spot. Seb Toots just missed out on a medal, though his double backside rodeo 1080 was one of the tricks that deserves to be shouted about, landed with a typical Toutant stomp.

And then that was it for another year, the X Games circus will continue through the night as the nerds battle it out for the X Games Major League Gaming title, but we’re done for now. The snowboarding Ukippers will carry on blindly screaming into the void that somehow an event with military personnel handing out medals is still better than one run by skiers… But we’ve already been over this. See you next year folks!

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