Iouri Podladtchikov in snowboarding, Mat Rebeaud in FMX, Sandro Dias in skateboarding, and all the best athletes you could dream of seeing from the world of freeskiing. The starting lineup for Europe’s largest freestyle sports event guarantees peak athletic performances. And the great thing about this year: Since the event is concentrated on two days, all invited big names are sure to be at the start on Saturday.

While the top competitors in each discipline were spread out across the Friday and Saturday qualification rounds in previous years, this year’s new concentration on two days guarantees that all the best athletes will appear on Saturday. This will make Saturday’s competitions even more impressive and will give a hint of the spectacle awaiting visitors during Sunday’s finals. Particularly in the discipline of freeskiing, names like Jon Olsson (SWE), Simon Dumont (USA), Andreas Håtveit (NOR), TJ Schiller (CAN), Jacob Wester (SWE), Sammy Carlson (USA) and Elias Ambühl (SUI) ensure a one-of-a-kind competition. Never before have the organizers been able to fill the freeskiing starting list so quickly, and never before has the lineup been of such high caliber. «Personally, freestyle.ch is my favourite contest, and it’s very popular among other athletes, too. The lineup this year will force us to pull something completely new and unique. We will deliver a sick show – that much is certain!» confirms freestyle.ch champion in freeskiing from 2008, Jacob Wester.

Great Chances for X Games Champion Podladtchikov

Zurich itself is furnishing one of the most promising contenders for the title of freestyle.ch’s oldest discipline, snowboarding: winner of X Games Europe, Iouri Podladtchikov. «Last year my hometown chose me as crossover.champ. This year I want to finally thank Zurich for it by winning the snowboarding competition!» says Podladtchikov of his participation. Podladtchikov and his confirmed teammate Christian Haller already proved to have the right form in August at the Burton New Zealand Open, where Podladtchikov won the halfpipe event and Haller won the slopestyle. At freestyle.ch, the two strong Swiss competitors will have to prove themselves against the likes of Olympic silver medalist and TTR overall champion Peetu Piiroinen (FIN) and Air&Style winner Marko Grilc (SLO).

Previous Year’s Champion Torres versus the Public’s Favorite Rebeaud
Things are sure to heat up during the FMX competition too. After taking a break following an injury at the beginning of the year, the exemplary Swiss FMXer Mat Rebeaud is currently fighting his way back to the top. He took second place at the Red Bull X-Fighters in Madrid, beating out last year’s freestyle.ch champion Dany Torres (ESP). So it’s likely to come down to a familiar battle of the countries at freestyle.ch. Whether or not Switzerland can take out Spain – as is often the case in tennis and sometimes in soccer – remains to be seen.

Dias or Ronchetti?
The starting list for skateboarding also boasts names of international rank. At the head of the pack is the public’s favourite Sandro Dias (BRA). In 2009, Dias was still suffering from an injury. The promising young whippersnapper Paul-Luc Ronchetti (GBR) took advantage of that and won surprisingly. But Dias, who recently placed 5th at the X Games, already proved that he is in top shape. The Brazilian, who with two crossover.champ titles has long been in the favour of Zurich’s public, surely won’t give Ronchetti an easy ride and will try to recapture the victory in both, skateboarding and the crossover session, with his high signature airs.
Further information available at www.freestyle.ch and on Facebook at www.freestyle.ch/facebook

Have here a look on all participants so far:

Die FIS Junioren Weltmeisterschaften stehen vor der Tür – falls ihr in Europa wach seid, dann checkt das live scoring: http://live.eim-solutions.com/fjwc2010

The FIS Junior World Champs are on – if you’re awake then check the live scoring: http://live.eim-solutions.com/fjwc2010

Text via www.downdays.eu:

Over 300 of the world’s elite junior snow sports athletes will arrive in Lake Wanaka this week to compete in the inaugural FIS Snowboard & Freestyle Junior World Championships which runs from 19-31 August.

Marking the first time a FIS World Championship has taken place in the Southern Hemisphere and the first time the sports of freeskiing and snowboarding have combined at World Championship level, the event has attracted a high calibre field that includes many ranked in the top 20 in the world, despite their young age.

Heading the New Zealand team is current world number one, freeskier Jossi Wells of Wanaka. He is joined by Olympic snowboarder, Rebecca Sinclair and 36 other young New Zealand hopefuls keen to earn valuable experience against an international field on their home turf.

Competition will be tough with athletes such as Fanny Smith of Switzerland who is ranked #5 in the world for ski cross and USA’s Hannah Haupt, also fifth in the world but for freeski halfpipe, confirmed.

The USA has sent a 40-strong team of athletes plus support staff while 33 Canadian athletes have also made the long journey to the southern snow. Other countries represented are: Sweden (4), Switzerland (23), Norway (15), Chile (1), Poland (3), Bulgaria (2), Netherlands (7), Czech Republic (11), Germany (11), Philippines (1), Japan (22), Belgium (6), Andorra (1), Russia (23), Austria (10), Great Britain (4), Slovakia (12), Australia (26), Ukraine (3), Greece (2), Italy (6), Korea (16), Finland (7), Spain (3).

A Parade of Nations through Wanaka town centre will launch the championships at 5.00pm on Friday 20 August, followed by a powhiri and official welcome by Dean Gosper of the Federation International de Ski (FIS) as well as Championships Patron Juliane Bray.

All the on-snow action in the 2010 FIS Freestyle and Snowboard Junior World Championships will take place from 21 to 31 August at Cardrona Alpine Resort and Snow Park NZ, Lake Wanaka featuring the following nine disciplines – snowboard slopestyle, snowboard cross, snowboard halfpipe, snowboard parallel slalom and giant slalom, snowboard big air, freeski slopestyle, ski cross and freeski halfpipe. For further information, visit www.juniorworldsnz.co.nz