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Stockholm Winter Jam – FIS Big Air

November 11, 2006 @ 9:06 PM -

Did you ever felt like, I don’t know… A dog in the middle of a bowling lane? That’s a little bit the impression we had yesterday when we - we as a big bunch of snowboarders – turned up at the Scandic Hotel in Stockholm yesterday. Evening dresses for girls, suits for men, that kind of stuff. But on the other hand, how to complain? The Winter Jam organisers had put us in one of the Swedish capital’s hot spot. When we came back from a marvellous local restaurant in Gamla Stan – the old town, the atmosphere was way more relaxed as the riders and the snowboard crowd gathered massively on the first floor for a nice little party. Or shall we call it pre-party? In fact the main event, snowboarding part of the Winter Jam, was today (Saturday 11th), and it’s a stop of the FIS Big Air World Cup tour in the epic 1912 Olympic Stadium. <div class="left_caption_image"><span class="uline">Friday night party at the Scandic Hotel</span></div> Amongst top riders such as Antti Autti Mathieu Crepel, Giacomo Kratter and many more, some up and coming kids have shown some great stuff this morning in the qualifications. And after the first round of 63 riders, the first five of each heat were qualified for the following format with 16 riders: head to head K.O. with two runs per rider. Actually that was one of the most noticeable thing of the week-end for me: the line up of riders was exceptionally impressive, and it was a pretty amazing surprise to see riders like Andreas Wiig or Hampus Mosesson taking part. The other thing that striked me was the fact that the judging really considered style and amplitude, which has been often a subject of discussions towards the FIS judging system. So props to them on this event! <div class="left_caption_image">The qualifications happened under difficult weather conditions. Fortunately the rain and wind were to stop for the Finals.</div> Qualified riders: HEAT 1 <ul class="unordered"><li>1. Torstein Horgmo</li> <li>2. Risto Mattila</li> <li>3. Antti Autti</li> <li>4. Matevz Petek</li> <li>5. Hakon Toennessen</li></ul> HEAT 2 <ul class="unordered"><li>1. Stefan Gimpl</li> <li>2. Peetu Piiroinen</li> <li>3. Giacomo Kratter</li> <li>4. Martin Sandberg</li> <li>5. Benedikt Nadig (sui)</li> </ul> HEAT 3 <ul class="unordered"><li>1. Andreas Wiig</li> <li>2. Florian Mausser</li> <li>3. Jaakko Ruha</li> <li>4. Ville Uotila</li> <li>5. Hubert Fill (aut)</li></ul> Chris Sorman, Mat Crepel, Mikael Lundmark, Stian Solberg, Hampus Mosesson, Janne Korpi were amongst the big surprises not to qualify. Martin Sandberg was the only Swede left for the 1/8th Finals and got the cheering of the crowd - who came in mass despite the bad weather, but was soon beaten by the Gimp, who pulled out straight away one of the biggest scores of the night. In fact, surprises continued until the semi finals, when the level seriously stepped up. The first semi final was an opposition Piiroinen – Mattila, and turn to the advantage of Peetu who pulled a pretty sick Switch FS 1080, that Risto’s 900 nose didn’t quite match. In the other semi final, the winner combination was about to come from the Slovenian kid Matevz Petek. Switch BS 9 on the first run, Switch BS 7 on the second, both super nice and smooth. That was it, Flo Mausser was beaten despite a spin to win: Switch FS 1080. <div class="left_caption_image">Flo Mausser Switch FS 1080 in front of the Stadium crowd</div> Style winning on a big air contest, Bush’s party loosing the Senate in the States (oops, did I speak politics there?), what a great week-end after all. Let’s go make party! Results from Nokia Snowboard FIS World Cup 11th of November <ul class="unordered"> <li>1st: PETEK MATEVZ</li> <li>2nd: Peetu Piiroinen</li> <li>3rd: Risto Mattila</li> <li>4th: Florian Mausser</li> <li>5th: Andreas Wiig</li> <li>6th: Stefan Gimpl</li> <li>7th: Giacomo Kratter</li> <li>8th: Benedikt Nadig</li> </ul> Also check the Winter Jam page. <div class="left_caption_image">Matevz with a happy face</div>