Sebastien Toutant wins the 5Star Billabong Ante Up, Gjermund Braaten moves into Swatch TTR World No. 1

The Billabong Ante Up competition, the first 5Star event of the 2010/11 Swatch TTR World Tour season, went off this weekend with an excellent showing from a diverse field of riders. The summertime event was held in the Camp of Champions park on the Blackcomb glacier and featured a massive 75-foot gap jump. The Ante Up hosted 40 riders in a big air format who were all going for a piece of the $50,000 prize purse and 850 TTR ranking points. It ended up as an all-Canadian podium and Sebastien Toutant (CAN) took the top spot making him $20,000 richer. Toutant also secured the World No. 3 spot in the TTR World Rankings and received an automatic invite to the 6Star Billabong Air & Style Innsbruck later in the season.

Canadians defend their home turf with 1260 double corks

Every rider was pulling off impressive tricks all day and it came down to a double cork 1260 podium with the top three riders doing different variations of the trick. Toutant won the first place with a flawless Cab 1260 double cork and had this to say about his win, “Winning the first 5Star TTR big air contest was just amazing, it was an epic final and it’s sick because I’ll be in the top of the TTR rankings going down to New Zealand in August.”

Coming in second place behind Toutant and winning $10,000 USD was Matts Kulisek (CAN) who landed a frontside 1260 double cork and Mark McMorris (CAN) took third place earning $6,000 USD for his backside 1260 double cork. Other notable mentions include Gjermund Braaten (NOR) who also stomped a backside 1260 double cork to take fourth place which, when combined with his 2009/10 season-end bonus points, bumped him up into TTR World No. 1. Check out the new Top 10 in the Swatch TTR World Rankings below.

Looking forward to the Southern Hemisphere Season

With the first 5Star event of the 2010/11 season in the bag, the tour will move down to the Southern Hemisphere in August for the 5Star Burton New Zealand Open which is the next major event on the calendar. Point your browsers to ttrworldtour.com for news, photos, and video coverage from the Ante Up as well as updated Swatch TTR World Rankings.

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Photo credit: Push.ca, Matt Forsythe