A little more than two weeks after the half-pipe opening of the 2009/2010 LG Snowboard FIS World Cup in Cardrona (NZE), it's time for the snowboard cross aces to start their season. On September 11th and 12th 2009, Chapelco (ARG) will host the boardercrossers' World Cup opener almost exactly one year after the first ever Snowboard World Cup was held in Argentina last year. The Chapelco event is the first in a series of five qualification stops on the World Cup tour for athletes to make their national Olympic teams.

Unfortunately, due to constant rain a few weeks ago, the race will have to be carried out on a shortened course as opposed to the long course seen last year. But, even if the preconditions have not been the best, the world's best athletes have registered to compete. The strong starter field is led by 2006 Olympic champions Tanja Frieden (SUI) and Seth Wescott (USA). They are joined by last year's Chapelco winners Lindsey Jacobellis (USA) and Pierre Vaultier (FRA), who celebrates a comeback after a long competition break due to injury, as well as the reigning world champions Helene Olafsen (NOR) and Markus Schairer (AUT). The Olympic season promises to get a spectacular start!

FIS news
10/09/2009

White and Liu best in LG Snowboard FIS World Cup season opening

In the first half-pipe competition of the LG Snowboard FIS World Cup 2009/10 season Shaun White (USA) and Jiayu Liu (CHN) left the competition no chance. In Cardrona, New Zealand, White set the standard with his first run that scored 47.1 points which turned out to be too high for the others to match. Iouri Podladtchikov of Switzerland and Kazuhiro Kokubo of Japan completed the podium.

In the ladies' competition, reigning World Cup half-pipe and world champion Jiayu Liu also built the basis for her victory in her first run. The strong US team claimed the remaining podium places with Kelly Clark and Gretchen Bleiler in 2nd and 3rd places.

The windy weather caused some havoc with the schedule. Instead of the regular schedule of semi-finals and finals, the competition was completed in finals with 18 riders. The upcoming Olympic Winter Games, now less than 6 months away, were already clearly visible in the extremely high quality of the competition. White, the 22-year-old reigning Olympic champion in the half-pipe, delivered a historic run in the 22 feet superpipe with a "Lien Air" followed by a "Backside 900", "Frontside 720", "Cab Double Cork 1080" and ending with a "Frontside 1080."

White commented: "I think that Double Corks are the future of the sport. It shouldn't be about throwing in as many spins as possible but about the style. And everyone could see today that those tricks are still hard to do." He added: "And, I still something in store. I'm always trying to stay ahead of the rest. I have more tricks which I might reveal at the national qualifiers for the Olympics."

FIS news
27/08/2009