The Horsefeathers Superpark Dachstein presented itself in all its splendour, the crowd had been heated up over the last few days and the riders had demonstrated their skills already in the qualifications, yanking up the suspense on the last day of the Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam 2011 to no end. Higher, further, faster: the setup proved, once again, finely prepared, an ideal arena for the finalists to battle each other in front of the breath-taking scenery of the Dachstein.
Huge Show-down at the Finals
In the men’s finals, especially the battle between the strong Scandinavians, in particular the strong the aspiring shooting star Niklas Mattson and his countryman Sven Thorgen and the secret favourite from Belgium, Seppe Smits, enthralled the masses. Niklas conjured up a massive combination of technically sophisticated tricks and stylish airs, but in the end was outmatched in the Superfinals by the Belgian prodigy Seppe Smits, who charmed both the audience and the judges with incredibly precise jumps and fluid runs. He can now not only call himself champion of the 9th Horsefeathers Plesure Jam, but also gets valuable points for the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour, which starts in Europe with the Jam.
Seppe on his victory: “It was a good day, I was killing it, the setup was good and I had a fun time – lovely!!”
Today’s sensation comes from Austria and is called Mathias “Hias” Weißenbacher, who managed to rise through the qualifications all the way to the Semifinals up to the third place.
Niklas Mattson
The freestyle ladies were running wild today, too. Aimee Fuller, Cheryl Maas, Cilka Sadar and Sarka Pancochova were caught in a tight head-to-head after the qualifications, infusing the ladie’s finals with a healthy dose of suspense. Cilka Sadar from Slovenia proved to be really sensitive with her mighty Cab 5s and stylish Method Airs right from the beginning.
Also Sarka Pancochova from the Czech Republic managed to answer that, especially with her second run, where she stomped a massive Cab 5 Underflip, a BS 3 and a FS Rodeo into the snow. In the end, however, Aimee Fuller prevailed, leaving her competitors in the dust or, rather, the snow. With an incredible amount of style and perfect landings, she convinced the judges.
It was the first ever win at a TTR contest for the sympathetic girl from England, so it’s not surprising that she was just enthralled by her victory: “I am stoked! I’m so happy, it’s my first win. I’ve had an amazing time here. It was so cool, the sunny weather – you couldn’t really ask for much more!”
Ladies : Cilka Sadar, Aimee Fuller and Sarka Pancochova
Cilka Sadar
Aimee Fuller
Cheryl Maas
Matevž Pristavec
Slovenians (and our Croatian friend) did a great job at Pleasure Jam too. Here are their results!
Girls: Urška Pribošič 8th place and Štefan Anja 24th
Boys: Kivec Aljoša 15., Pristavec Matevž 17., Marko Grilc 36., Tim Kevin Rvnjak 50., Rakovec Žiga 55., Pucko Jernej 61., Kralj Jan 66., Podlogar Peter 72., Kavčič Filip 88., Mitja Kodrič 94th
Photos by Roland Haschka & Silke Traunfellner
That’s how Aimee’s practice runs looked like:
