Preview: Air + Style Beijing big air World Cup
Nov 17, 2018·Snowboard Park & Pipe
Beijing (CHN) - After a two-week break, the FIS Snowboard big air World Cup is ready to get back to business this weekend with what should be one of the most exciting events of the 2018/19 season, as we return to China for the second year of a partnership with the legendary Air + Style at the Beijing big air World Cup on November 23-24, 2018.
One of the longest-standing and most prestigious competitions in snowboarding, the Air + Style has been running in various forms since 1994, when the competition’s founder Andrew Hourmont conceived of a showdown in Innsbruck (AUT) where the most exciting riders in the world would be invited to show their best in front of a huge crowd on a big air jump near the city centre. In fact, the Air + Style was the first city-based competition in snowboard history, and the template upon which all of today’s big air competitions are based.
Beijing has been a steady stop on the Air + Style circuit since 2010, and this season’s competition will be the third of the four 2018/19 World Cup big airs, after the season-opener in Cardrona (NZL) in September and the Modena Skipass competition two weeks ago in Italy.
Iwabuchi looking for three straight in Beijing
On the ladies’ side of things the big story so far this season is the dominance of the Japanese squad, whose tandem of Reira Iwabuchi and Miyabi Onitsuka took the top 2 spots in both the Cardrona and Modena competitions, with Iwabuchi leading the way with two victories and Onitsuka twice finishing runner-up to her younger teammate. At 17 and 20-years-old, respectively, both Iwabuchi and Onitsuka are young, fearless, and supremely talented in both big air and slopestyle, and look posed to stand at the pinnacle of freestyle snowboarding for years to come.
However, the biggest story in the snowboard world ahead of the Beijing competition is Austria’s Anna Gasser. The PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games big air gold medallist, Sierra Nevada 2017 big air gold medallist, and two-time big air crystal globe winner made history last week by becoming the first female rider to stomp a triple invert, putting down a triple underflip while training in Stubai (AUT) on last Tuesday. Whether she’ll attempt the trick in competition at Beijing remains to be seen.
Others to watch out for in Beijing ladies’ competiton include current third-ranked rider Klaudia Medlova (SVK), last year’s Beijing third-place finisher Enni Rukajarvi (FIN), and PyeongChang 2018 big air bronze medallist Zoi Sadoski-Synnott (NZL).
Corning and Otsuka: the saga continues
For the men, there’s a battle royale ongoing at the top of the big air World Cup standings, where the USA’s Chris Corning and Japan’s Takeru Otsuka stand tied after two competitions, with a win and runner-up apiece.
Corning claimed victory at the season-opener in Cardrona on his 19th birthday, stomping a perfect flatspin 1440 before following that up with a near-perfect quad cork backside 1800 - the first quad cork ever seen in a World Cup competition.
In Modena, Corning again attempted the quad 1800, putting it down to his feet but slipping out due to compression at the bottom of the landing. Had he landed the trick it would have been the first time a rider had stomped a quadruple inverted rotation on a scaffold big air jump set-up, ever.
Otsuka, for his part, may force Corning’s hand into trying the trick on the scaffold jump again in Beijing, as the 17-year-old Japanese rider has locked down triple-corked 1440 and 1620 variations with a proficiency that few others in the world can match.
As in the ladies’ competition, however, the top two ranked men will be looking over their shoulders, as a number of heavyweight riders are on the scene in Beijing ready to drop in on their first competitions of the season.
Top amongst those riders is likely to be PyeongChang 2018 slopestyle silver medallist and 2015/16 big air World Cup crystal globe winner Max Parrot (CAN), while five-time X Games medallist (and the first man to land a quad cork in competition) Marcus Kleveland (NOR), 2015/16 Air + Style tour champion Sven Thorgren (SWE), and a slew of others can all do some damage come competition day.
Action at the Beijing National Stadium (aka the Bird’s Nest) gets underway on Friday, November 23, with qualifiers beginning at 11:25 local time. Finals are slated for Saturday, Novemeber 24, beginning at 18:30.
QUICK LINKS:
FIS Beijing data page (event programme, start lists, live scoring, results)
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