Burton European Open Kicks Off with Men’s Slopestyle
The Burton European Open got underway this weekend in Laax, Switzerland with the men’s slopestyle pre-qualification competition. Under sunny skies and springtime temperatures, 120 riders from all over the world competed for 40 spots in tomorrow’s men’s slopestyle semi-finals where they will compete against invited slopestyle superstars like Shaun White (USA), Travis Rice (USA), Antti Autti (FIN) and Mason Aguirre (USA).
Below is a complete list of male riders advancing to the BEO slopestyle semifinals:
From Heat 1:
Ulrik Badertscher, NOR
Henning Marthinsen, NOR
Matevz Pristavec, SLO
Antti-Juhani Piirainen, FIN
Jonas Carlson, SWE
Reinhard Rieser, AUT
Tyler Chorlton, GBR
Kim-Rune Hansen, NOR
Stephan Maurer, SUI
James Thorne, GBR
Even Brekke, NOR
Werner Stock, AUT
Simon Gruber, ITA
Cyrill Eidam, SUI
Bobby Witty, USA
Joose Viikuna, FIN
Nick Brown, NZE
Marc Swoboda, AUT
Domen Bizjak, SLO
Christian Weber, SUI
Paal Soerensen, NOR
Julien Haricot, FRA
Rudi Kröll, AUT
Thomas Franc, SUI
From Heat 2:
Ville Uotila, FIN
Reto Kestenholz, SUI
Benedikt Nadig, SUI
Sergey Tarasov, RUS
Matti Kinnunen, FIN
Pekka Ruokanen, FIN
Ben Watts, USA
Fredrik Austbö, NOR
Johann Baisamy, FRA
Miikka Hast, FIN
Jah Daniel Harris, NZE
Victor De le Rue, FRA
Alessandro Boyens, GER
Iouri Podladtchikov, RUS
Mathieu Gerome, FRA
Christophe Reynders, BEL
The Burton Global Open Series events are the pinnacle snowboarding events of the season. Founded by Jake Burton, the Opens have grown from grassroots events to global spectacles attracting tens of thousands of spectators and riders from around the world. Since the beginning, the Opens have been driven by riders, for riders evolving with snowboarding and riders’ needs over the years. With events held in Europe, Japan, the United States, New Zealand and Australia, the Opens set the standard for snowboarding events around the globe. For more information, visit www.opensnowboarding.com or www.motorola.com/burton
The Burton European Open is part of the Ticket To Ride (TTR) World Snowboard Tour, the largest group of independent freestyle snowboard events in the world. TTR ranks riders based on their results at participating competitions and crowns a TTR World Champion at the US Open. For more information, visit www.ttrworldtour.com
Head to www.Lat34.com/beo to see live cybercasts of the BEO on January 27 from 12h00 – 14h15 Local Swiss Time.
Photographs courtesy of Marcel Lämmerhirt
