Kirkwood, CA – With a two-day competition format that cut the field in half after the first day, many of the athletes competing over the weekend in the North American Freeskiing Championships Kirkwood 2011, the third stop on the Freeride World Tour, chose to step things up by launching big airs, which resulted in exciting skiing including a highly unusual number of crashes. Kirkwood young gun Josh Daiek recorded his first-ever win on his home mountain while Snowbird, Utah’s Angel Collinson earned the top women’s spot.nFresh snow and a playful course meant two full days of aggressive skiing. Scores from both days were accumulated to determine the final ranking. Several of the world’s top riders did not advance to the second day of the contest, producing some unexpected results and changes in the overall Freeride World Tour ranking, with young French talent Jérémy Prévost taking the lead. Sweden’s Janette Hargin still remains at the top of the women’s ranking but her overall lead is shrinking.
Ski Men
With an incredibly talented group of skiers converging on Kirkwood for this event it was the North Americans who dominated on home ground. The big winner was Daiek, Kirkwood’s hometown hero, followed by Kevin O’Meara from neighboring Squaw Valley, Calif., and France’s Guerlain Chicherit, who showed convincingly that he has still got what it takes to claim a spot on the podium despite taking a break from competition.
The top Freeride World Tour skiers threw down some of the best runs of the weekend but their big lines often resulted in big crashes, with the top six Freeride World Tour skiers all missing the cut going into the second day of competition.
Prévost, at 22 one of the tour’s young rookies, qualified from the Freeride World Qualifier ranking last season and just missed out on the weekend’s podium by placing fourth. However, with his impressive performance he now claims the top spot of the Freeride World Tour 2011 ranking, bumping Henrik Windstedt of Sweden down to second.
“I was really happy with my run. Going into today’s event I knew I was leading the FWT riders so I didn’t want to take too many risks,” Prévost explained. “I spotted a big cliff but when I saw the landing was full of sharks I decided to hit a lot of little jumps with speed instead. It’s the North American Freeskiing Championships so I still wanted to ski a good line.”
Switzerland’s Samuel Anthamatten, also on his rookie year on the FWT, absolutely crushed the event face on Day 2 with a line that was not only one of the fastest but also the highest-scoring single-run of the day, finishing 10th overall.
Ski Women
On both days, the ladies started first and took full advantage of the untracked snow to produce clean, fluid runs including impressive cliff jumps. New Zealand’s Janina Kuzma won the event in 2010 but this year, despite an impressive run, she was unable to repeat and placed second behind Collinson, who managed to take first place with a smooth run that included several clean airs. The podium was completed by Snowbird, Utah’s Rebecca Selig.
“I had a little bit of a lead coming in from yesterday so I didn’t want to take too many chances,” Collinson rationalized. “I wanted to take a run with a few small airs and just skied fast and fluid.”
The weekend’s results are not enough to unseat overall leader Hargin, who placed eighth in Kirkwood, from her position at the top of the leader board. However, now with two wins this season Collinson takes a big jump in the rankings. Kuzma, as well as Janette Hargin’s sister Christine will also narrow the gap on Janette Hargin’s overall lead as a result of the outcome in Kirkwood.
Next up: Sochi
The next event on the six-stop 2011 Freeride World Tour will be the Nissan Russian Adventure Sochi 2011 in Sochi, Russia this weekend for men’s ski and snowboard competitions.