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Burton European Open 2009: Norwegians Dominate Slopestyle Qualifications

Perfectly sunny skies shone down again on the third day of the Burton European Open where men’s and women’s slopestyle qualifiers went down.

Forty men, who came through from pre-qualification and 53 women had two runs to prove to the judges of the Burton European Open 2009 that they were worthy of competing against some of the world’s best slopestyle riders in the semi-finals, coming up this Thursday at the BEO. In the end, it was two Norwegians, Stale Sandbech and Lisa Wiik who qualified first.

The men took to the course first and learned that there were two more open semi-final spots up for grabs as two of the invited riders, Janne Korpi (FIN) and Marko Grilc (SLO) will not be able to compete at this year’s Burton European Open. In the men’s qualifiers, it was Stale Sandbech (NOR) who qualified first with a run that included a backside 180 tail bonk, alley oop rock’n’roll 540 on the wallride, frontside boardslide 270 out on the down-rail followed by a 720 mute and Cab 720 on the halfpipe feature and a Cab 900, frontside 720 and backside 900 on the kickers. In the end, 12 men earned coveted spots in Thursday’s semi-finals where they will get to compete against the likes of Shaun White (USA), Mikkel Bang (NOR), Current BGOS Champion Peetu Piiroinen (FIN) and David Benedek (GER).

In the women’s qualification, 40 ladies also had two runs to earn one of six spots to compete in the semi-finals of the Burton European Open 2009. Lisa Wiik (NOR) took the top qualifying spot with a run that included a frontside 180 nose bonk on the log jib, an alley oop on the wallride, nosepress on the down-box a huge frontside air followed by an equally huge backside air on the halfpipe feature and a backside 540, half Cab and a backside 360 on the kickers. Lisa and five other ladies will get to ride against top female slopestyle riders Jamie Anderson (USA), Cheryl Maas (NED), Jenny Jones (GBR) and Silvia Mittermüller (GER) among others.

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