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Takeru Otsuka dominates snowboard big air, takes home X Games gold

By Bruin Belisle

VAIL, CO - MARCH 9: Takeru Otsuka of Japan during Men's Slopestyle Finals of the 2018 Burton U.S. Open on March 9, 2018 in Vail, Colorado. (Photo by Daniel Milchev/Getty Images)
VAIL, CO - MARCH 9: Takeru Otsuka of Japan during Men's Slopestyle Finals of the 2018 Burton U.S. Open on March 9, 2018 in Vail, Colorado. (Photo by Daniel Milchev/Getty Images) /
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The men of snowboarding put on a show under the bright lights in the X Games Norway snowboarding big air final on Saturday afternoon. Here are the highlights from the event.

Each rider brought their A-game to Norway and the margin for error in this event was very slim. Takeru Otsuka would capitalize, putting down the best two runs for a score of 91.00 and a shiny new X Games gold medal.

Home-country favorite Marcus Kleveland finished in second place, with a score of 86.33 and the American Chris Corning rounded out the top three with 83.66 points.

Max Parrot would come out of run one (and the entire competition) with the highest single run score when his switch frontside 1620 netted him a 46.66 from the judges. Parrot has four X Games gold medals in the big air event and has never missed a podium in his X Games big air career.

Parrot would not add to his total today though, as he missed jumps two and three. No rider would catch Takeru Otsuka in this one. Otsuka opened with a frontside triple cork 1440, which is extremely difficult as you can’t spot your landing until the final second.

His second jump was the same trick but switch, upping the difficulty even more. He closed out with a safe 1260 and when Max Parrot went down on his third attempt, Otsuka’s gamble paid off.

Otsuka is only 17-years old. He joins fellow Japanese child-phenom Kokomo Murase, who dominated on the way to her first X Games gold in the women’s big air today at the age of 13. The future is very bright for Japanese snowboarding.

Full Results

1. Takeru Otsuka – 91.00
2. Marcus Kleveland – 86.33
3. Chris Corning – 83.66
4. Sebastien Toutant – 79.33
5. Max Parrot – 53.99
6. Mark McMorris – 52.32
7. Kyle Mack – 48.00
8. Yuki Kadono – 37.66

Highlights

You can watch the event in it’s entirety here.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bi-NfEMhotN/

Next: 13-year old Kokomo Murase takes home X Games gold

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