The Sports Syndicate’s Ryan Villopoto raced to his second-consecutive Monster Energy AMA Supercross 450SX Class Main Event win at O.co Coliseum before a record crowd of 46,896. Villopoto jumped out to an early lead, scoring the Nuclear Cowboyz Holeshot Award. By Lap 3, Villopoto established a 7-second lead which he increased to over 10 seconds before the checkered flag on his way to a first place finish. “The points race is what we are going after, and winning the holeshot gives you a great advantage,” said Villopoto. “We made some changes to the bike today that I think really helped us out there tonight, so hats off to my team. It is a long season, and we are going to keep plugging away.” Monster Energy Supercross will continue on February 2, at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA.
With two previous Golds to his name, four-time event medalist, the Sports Syndicate's Torstein Horgmo opened the Snowboard Big Air competition with its first triple. But in the waning minutes, the 25-year-old Norwegian scored a perfect 50-point run with a switch backside triple cork 1440, the first ever landed in competition, to claim the Gold. "I can't believe it," Horgmo said. "I tried it a week ago and I thought I'd give it a shot here. Any of the other podiums I've been on ever, this was the best one for sure. This was the craziest level of riding that I've ever been a part of." The Sports Syndicate's Mark McMorris also nailed a critical triple on his final hit of the night, a cab triple underflip 1440, a trick he had never tried before Friday night, and no one has ever landed in competition before. The judges awarded him with a score of 48, which was not enough to overtake Horgmo, but allowed him to nab the Silver medal. "Torstein is a boss! What can I say," McMorris said of his friend's victory. "He just absolutely changed the game of snowboarding, and I'm very, very glad I could be a part of it." McMorris's final triple tied his score at 94 with Horgmo, but it was the Norwegian's next-best score that flawless 50-pointer that broke the tie. McMorris also defended his 2012 Gold medal in Slopestyle, posting that event's top two scores and winning with his third-run 98.00, the highest score in X Games Slopestyle history. McMorris raised the bar when he could have coasted down the course on a victory lap. He added a difficult cab double cork 1260 to his last run, which bumped his score from 94.66 to 98.00. "I came here to do the cab 12 and I just felt like it needed to be done," McMorris said. "The course was too good not to do that run. I'm so glad it's over," said McMorris, "I proved myself the way I wanted to and I'm just a happy camper. I landed a run I don't think I've ever done, really." Congrats to both Torstein and Mark on their dominance on the mountain at X Games Aspen 2013!
Mark McMorris Winning Run - Snowboard Slopestyle Final
The 2013 Monster Energy AMA Supercross made its return visit to Anaheim Angel Stadium in front of a crowd of 37,789 fans. The Sports Syndicate's Ryan Villopoto emerged victorious for the first time this season. Villopoto came out of the first corner in sixth but quickly began to make his move forward. On Lap 4, Villopoto made the pass on the leader, for second and set his sights on first. Villopoto positioned himself to make a pass for the lead and made an aggressive move on Lap 5 just before the finish line. Once out front, Villopoto logged fast, consistent laps to open up a healthy lead and win by nearly seven seconds. “The season didn’t start like we wanted it to,” said Villopoto, “I had a decent race in Phoenix and the team made good changes to the bike this week. We’ve finally got the ball going in the right direction and are digging ourselves out of the hole. Once I got into the lead, I was just trying to click of the laps and keep it consistent. The track was really slippery tonight, but I still tried to keep the pace up.” Monster Energy Supercross will continue on January 26, in Oakland, CA.
The Big Air final at the 2013 O’Neill Evolution exploded into something that will go down as a watershed moment in snowboarding history. 15-year-old Sports Syndicate snowboarder Kyle Mack, scored a world first by putting down the first contest-landed frontside triple rodeo. If you haven’t heard the name Kyle Mack before, hear it here, and hear it now. The 15-year-old uber-ripper-in-waiting dropped into his second of three runs only to suffer the worst slam of the contest following a failed attempt at the unprecedented frontside triple rodeo. Mack picked himself up from his horror slam and dropped into this third and final run. Stomping a never-seen-before-in-contest triple rodeo 1440 indy, and went on to backside lipslide and frontside noseslide to fakie the rail section. Nervous moments ensued before the judges returned a 95.00 points score, which awarded Mack a solid second place finish. The results also saw Kyle Mack move into second in the Overall rankings.
Also in the Men's Superpipe final, it was again left to 15-year old wunderkind, Kyle Mack, to shake up the podium positions in the last run of the event, with a super-technical run that included a frontside 900 mute, and frontside 1080 tail to cab 720 mute Kyle climbed into another 2nd place finish for the 2013 event.
In Men's Slopestyle at the FIS Snowboard World Championships in Stoneham, Canada the Sports Syndicate's Mark McMorris, who was the first slopestyle World Cup winner in history, had to settle this time with a Silver medal. However, McMorris was ok with the result. “I was really excited about landing a first run as it was good to get that one out of the way. Other than that I'm really happy with the way I rode. That's what I come to contests to do, ride the best I can. I'm psyched.”
The Sports Syndicate's Chas Guldemond swept the slopestyle finals at the Paul Mitchell Progression Session at the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix at Copper Mountain. Despite snowy conditions that made for slow in runs, Guldemond was able to float his signature double 1260 that earned him a winning score of 92.50. The Grand Prix marked the first opportunity for athletes to garner Olympic qualifying points and 5Star World Snowboard Tour points. The event also doubled as the U.S. Snowboarding Championships with Guldemond taking the national slopestyle title. Chas commented, "My first run was for the U.S. Snowboarding team and my second run was for me. As always I try to have a good time snowboarding no matter what. It feels so good to be on top and start the Olympic qualifying period. It’s my goal to continue this success to the best of my abilities. The weather was tough, but back home in New Hampshire I grew it with this kind of weather and it makes you tough. I have really been working hard to perfect my run and it is going well so far, I am happy with how my dub 12 is coming together."
You might already know their names; you might not. But ESPN is telling you right now. The faces in the Annual NEXT issue are the ones to watch. Every year since 1998, ESPN The Magazine has recognized an elite group of emerging athletes to watch in the year ahead, athletes dubbed NEXT. They are competitors not only on the cusp of stardom, but on the verge of transcending their sports. ESPN The Magazine’s “NEXT” issue features profiles of young athletes on the brink of greatness, including The Sports Syndicate's pro snowboarder Mark McMorris among others. A complete list of 2012 NEXT athletes and an article with Mark McMorris is available at www.espn.com/next and in ESPN The Magazine.
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Since 1990 The McClellan Nichols Sports Syndicate, LLC has grown by referral into the premier diversified sports management company. MNSS is a full-service athlete representation agency with particular expertise in Golf and Action Sports including, Motorcycle Racing, Freestyle Motocross, Surfing and Snowboarding. That means our job is to do everything possible to ensure the long-term success of our athletes and corporate sponsorship partners.
