The First Day of The 6th Red Bull Nanshan Open was Purrfect….
January 5th, 2008
Beijing, CHINA - No one could have asked for anything more. The weather was beautiful, the temperature was just right, the riding was amazing and the crowd was amped for the first day of The 6th Red Bull Nanshan Open.
Local riders hit the slope with 14 international pros for the qualifying round where the top eleven riders advanced for tomorrow. Peter Koenig was the top rider of the day after a huge 900 – 720 combo. First runner up was Freddy Austbo who was actually the most fluid of the bunch. His three runs were all flawless leaving him in the second place with the most stylish FS 3’s and 5’s and giant alley-oop 360’s on the hip. His Quiksilver brother Jakob Wilhelmson followed him in the third position with an amazing BS 180 Japan Shifty-Shifty over the entire hip and super clean BS 540s on the kickers.
Here is the list that will move onto the finals tomorrow:
1. Koenig Peter AUT – Forum, Red Bull
2. Fredrick Austbo NOR – Quiksilver, 32
3. Jakob Wilhelmson SWE – Quiksilver, Lib Tech
4. Jacob Koia NZE – Oakley, Endeavor
5. Atsushi Ishikawa JPN – Quiksilver, Nitro
6. Martin Cernick CZE – Red Bull, Quiksilver
7. Andreas Monsberger AUT – K2, Vans
8. Marc Svoboda AUT – Red Bull, Nitro
9. Kalle Ohlson SWE – Bataleon, Vans
10. Patrick Huber AUT (tie) – Nitro
11. Morgan Le Faucher FRA (tie) – Burton
Although the Chinese riders were strong, none advanced to tomorrow’s event. Wong Lei was the strongest of them all with smooth Frontside 5’s on the smaller kicker, but he was flying as high and as far as the pros. Andrew Wilde, Chinas rail ninja did some sick combos on the boxes and Zhang Wei was the first Chinese to in a competition! These riders are getting better and better!
Aside from all the action on the course, there was plenty of entertainment at the Gibson Stage! 3-time DMC Champion DJ Wordy threw down tracks and SKO got the crowd punked. This has been a big day for the Chinese snowboarders as hundreds came out to witness it go down. Stay tuned for who will take home a big chunk of the $25,000’s and 700 prestigious TTR World Snwoboard Tour points tomorrow.
The 6th Red Bull Nanshan Open is a 4 star TTR event and is brought to you in part by Quiksilver and Gibson. For more information, please visit www.mellowparks.cn.
