Jamie Nicholls podiums at Billabong Air & Style Rookie Challenge! Mark McMorris wins Senior Comp
Jamie Nicholls podiumed at his first major international contest on Saturday by getting third place in the Air & Style Rookie Challenge in Innsbruck. Jamie stomped a clean 10 on his first run, putting him ahead of most of the field of 14 young riders. Beating the likes of his team-mtes Kevin Backstrom and Ethan Morgan, as well as this year’s Burton European Open champion Roope Tonteri is, to put it mildly, fucking impressive, so we’re properly stoked for Jamie! Torgier Bergrem of Norway eventually won the Rookie Challenge (and an invite to next year’s senior comp) with the young Swiss Patrick Burgener coming second.
Later on, Mark McMorris rounded out an incredible evening of riding by winning the senior knockout competition. Peetu Piiroinen took silver, while local boy Werni Stock got the bronze. Nils Arvidsson, who had been riding strongly all night, failed to stomp his tricks unfortnately failed to stomp his runs n the four-man final. Earlier in the night he had managed to knock out Sage Kotsenburg however – a seriously impressive feat given that Sage himself had knocked out Seb Toots in the first round with the first ever cab 1440 double cork stomped in competition! Yep, it was that kind of night, and the riding was ridiculous throughout. Check out the highlights above, and read Jamie’s own account of the evening here.
