SNOWBOARD, WORLD CUP, BIG AIR. Niklas Mattson lifted a curse by clinching the first ever victory of a Swedish snowboarder in the six years of Stadium Winterjam contests. The 19 years-old rider not only secured the triumph he and his national team members had been waiting for quite a while by scoring a total of 172.4 points. Mattsson also celebrated his career's first ever World Cup triumph at the 2012 LG Snowboard FIS World Cup's second big air which took place today at the iconic Stockholms Stadion.

Michael Macho (AUT, 167.4) and Alexey Sobolev (RUS, 163.4) rounded out the podium as second and third ranked respectively.

According to this outstanding result for the Swede and its team mates, Mattsson said: "I'm feeling great. I actually don't know what to say. I never was expecting this; although I felt pretty good. But after the first run in the finals I got pretty nervous."

In contrary to his words, the young rider didn't seem to have some shaky knees as he nailed a very high executed frontside 1080 double cork as well as a very clean backside 1080 mute.

According to this, Mattsson added: "That was my first win ever, the first of a Swede here in Stockholm. It couldn't be any better."

Just like Mattsson, also Macho and Sobolev brought home their career's best big air results. While Macho had secured a podum spot once in 38 starts before (Denver, 2011), it was the first time for Sobolev on a big air podium. Sobolev thus became the second Russian to finish in the top 3 at a ramp event. The first one had been Dmitri Fessenko in Berlin, more than nine years ago.

The season's third big air is scheduled for Feb. 24, 2012, in Quebec, Canada. However, the riders will get the chance to collect some more points for the combined Slopestyle-Big Air World Cup at the World Cup debut of Jasna. The Slovakian resort will host a slopestyle competition on Feb. 4, 2012.

FISsnowboard.com
Saturday 19 November 2011

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