News

European Open Gets Underway

The 14th Burton European Open 2013 kicked-off in challenging conditions due to extreme weather at Europe's biggest on-snow snowboard event.

Approximately 200 riders from 12 countries participated in the slopestyle and halfpipe open qualification events. At Crap Sogn Gion, where the men's slopestyle went down, the weather changed quickly from bluebird to heavy wind and while the first heat of men's slopestyle qualifications ran according to schedule, winds picked up again around noon-time which made it impossible to run heat number two.

Halfpipe events were held as scheduled with qualifications in the morning, followed by semi-finals where the best riders from qualifications met the seeded international stars.

Luke Mitrani (USA) dominated the first heat with 92.33 points, followed by defending BEOHalfpipe Champion and current Halfpipe World Champion Iouri Podladtchikov (SUI). Sixteen-year old David Hablützel (SUI), who won a BEO Junior Halfpipe title in 2011, managed to get 3rd in beat number one.

Heat number two was in the hands of French Arthur Longo with 95.00 points, followed by 17-year-old Swiss rider Lucien Koch and Matt Ladley (USA). They will be challenged by Burton US Open Qualifiers winner Taylor Gold (USA), Johann Baisamy (FRA), Scotty Lago(USA), Ryo Aoki (JPN), Ayumu Hirano (JPN) and Tim-Kevin Ravnjak (SLO) who will round out the field of the 12 finalists riding in the halfpipe finals on Friday.

Results Halfpipe Semi-Final Men Heat #1
1. Luke Mitrani, USA, Volcom, 92.33
2. Iouri Podladtchikov, SUI, Quiksilver, 89.00
3. David Hablützel, SUI, Burton, 88.33
4. Taylor Gold, USA, Burton, 87.33
5. Johann Baisamy, FRA, Billabong, 87.00
6. Scotty Lago, USA, Flow, 86.33
7. Ryo Aoki, JPN, Yonex, 83.67

Results Halfpipe Semi-Final Men Heat #2
1. Arthur Longo, FRA, Volcom, 95.00
2. Lucien Koch, SUI, O'Neill, 87.33
3. Matt Ladley, USA, Nike, 84.67
4. Ayumu Hirano, JPN, Burton, 83.67
5. Tim-Kevin Ravnjak, SLO, Oakley, 82.33