BBC Winter Sports Journalist, Anna Thompson highlights the amazing slopestyle athletes the UK currently have, including Jenny Jones and Jamie Nicholls and Ed Leigh thinks the inclusion of both the ski and snowboard slopestyle in the 2014 Winter Olympics is not just a pipe dream!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/annathompson/2010/02/slopestyle_to_make_debut_in_so.html

Soulsports has been working with Ben Kilner for many years consulting and managing many of his sponsorships, so we were very proud to hear his latest result in Canada and the best of his career! a 3rd Place on the World Cup at the last event before the Olympics, which is a great boost!

Ben had to say “Well this is it! the last World Cup before the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. I managed to land my first run in semi’s and that put me in to the Finals. This has been the 2nd time i have ever got this far in the World Cups so i was just happy to make it this far. Once i landed my first run i got a score of 40.3 which put me into 2nd. On the second runs i was pushed into 3rd with an amazing run from French man Arthur Longo. My second run kept me in 3rd so i am super happy. This has put me in a very good frame of mind for going in to Vancouver and has been my best result so far in my Snowboarding Career!”

Jamie Nicholls continued his top form yesterday during the Burton European Opens Slopestyle Semi-Finals, finishing in an impressive 10th place overall and making it through to the finals.

Good work Jamie!

The mens finals will be taking place on Friday 15th January.

UK rippers Jamie Nicholls and Amiee Fuller have both qualified through to the Burton European Open Slopestyle Semi-Finals. Over 40 men and 50 women competed with only the top 18 men and 13 women advancing through the semi-finals where they will meet invited top-riders like last year’s BEO slopestyle winner Lisa Wiik and Swatch TTR World Champion 08/09 Peetu Piiroinen.

Today the men’s slopestyle semi-final is scheduled with the women’s semi-finals taking place on Thursday.

Slopestyle Qualification Men Results

1.     Jeromel Luka SLO FORUM 81.33

2.     Ciancaleoni Giorgio ITA BURTON 73.00

3.     Lipsanen Janne FIN RIPCURL 72.83

4.     Paumola Ville FIN QUIKSILVER 72.67

5.     Ryan Sean USA FORUM 71.00

6.     Tiller Sondre NOR DC SHOE CO USA 70.50

7.     Hast Miikka FIN PROTEST 70.17

8.     Morgan Ethan GER FORUM 69.67

9.     Uotila Ville FIN ATOMIC 69.33

10.  Nordgaard Trym NOR QUIKSILVER 69.17

11.  Arvidsson Nils SWE RIPCURL 69.00

12.  Sørensen Paal NOR QUIKSILVER 68.83

13.  Braaten Gjermund NOR OAKLEY 68.50

14.  Nicholls Jamie GBR QUIKSILVER 67.00

15.  Tonteri Roope FIN BURTON 66.00

16.  McMorris Mark CAN ONEILL 62.33

17.  Backstrom Kevin SWE BURTON 62.00

18.  Neraker Simmen NOR 32 SNOWBOARD 61.83

Slopestyle Qualfication Women Results

1.      Walker Ty USA ROXY 79.33

2.      Rukajärvi Enni FIN ROXY 78.00

3.      Somaini Carla SUI NEVER SUMMER 70.67

4.      Fuller Aimee GBR ROXY 67.50

5.      van Gils Charlotte NED K2 63.17

6.      Karlinski Jordie USA NIKITA 61.17

7.      Nadig Helen SUI ZIMTSTERN 60.67

8.     Van Der Pouw Britte NED ROXY 59.00

9.     Alekhina Elena RUS Roxy 58.83

10.   Sadlowski Diana POL CONTRACT 56.67

11.   Zabranska Lucie CZE ROXY 56.33

12.  Pribosic Urska SLO ELAN 55.67

13.  Ramholt Tina SUI HORSEFEATHER 54.83

If you can’t make it to Laax, you can watch the finals live on www.GO211.com:

The second event of the 2009 LG FIS Snowboard World Cup Halfpipe Tour came to a close today - 6 November 2009 - in Saas Fee, Switzerland. British Snowboard Team athlete Ben Kilner finished in 14th place, the second-best placing in his career to date, and a key result in this Olympic season. This result comes back to back with his 14th place in the World Cup Big Air on Saturday in London.

Kilner (21, Banchory) laid down a solid run in qualification, finishing 8th in his heat with only the top six going through to the finals. British World Cup Halfpipe Team coach Leo Addington commented “Ben rode well and was unfortunate not to make the finals. I’m pleased with how he landed his competition run, finishing with his frontside 9. The conditions were extremely tough for qualification [which took place on 5 November], the resort was shut to everyone but the World Cup riders due to the high winds and as a result they postponed the women’s qualification until today”.

Kilner commented “I’m pleased with my result but obviously a little disappointed not to have made the finals. The conditions were really challenging but we got through it. The result keeps me on track for Vancouver so I’m really pleased with that”.

Three other British Snowboard Team athletes were in action in Saas Fee, producing mixed results. Kate Foster (24, Painswick) finished the competition in 25th place, a solid start to her northern hemisphere winter season. Kate commented “the bad weather finally cleared and it turned out to be a beautiful winter’s day with blue skies and temperatures of -10C. The pipe was in good condition and I landed two solid runs so happy days! I’m looking forward to stepping it up in the Copper Grand Prix in December”.

Dom Harington (25, Leeds) had a good run according to Addington but it wasn’t enough for a top 30 place, finishing the competition in 36th place. Lesley McKenna (35, Aviemore) had the “best bail of the day” according to Addington, after catching her heel edge on the coping of the Halfpipe, but luckily not injuring herself.

“Overall I’m happy with the Team’s performance” commented Addington. “We will continue to train in Saas Fee for a few days before heading to Copper Mountain, USA, for training in the lead up to the next World Cup Halfpipe event”.

The next LG FIS Snowboard World Cup Halfpipe competition is on 6 and 7 January 2010 in Kreischberg, Austria. Zoe Gillings will be in action before that however as the LG FIS Snowboard World Cup Snowboardcross Tour moves to the USA between the 17 and 20 December.

BRITAIN’S FOUR ALL FINISH IN TOP 20 IN SNOWBOARD WORLD CUP FINALS
Britain’s top ranked male snowboarder Ben Kilner finished ninth to lead a superb performance by the Team GB quartet in the Halfpipe discipline at the FIS Snowboard World Cup Finals earlier today (Saturday) in Valmalenco, Italy.

The 20-year-old athlete from Banchory in Scotland recorded his highest-ever World Cup placing by finishing ninth in the men’s Halfpipe. Dom Harington, 24, from Leeds finished 20th in the same event. In the women’s event, Kate Foster, 23, from Painswick, and Lesley McKenna, 34, from Aviemore, finished 15th and 16th respectively.

British team Halfpipe coach Leo Addington said: “The World Cup finals ended with a great finish to the World Cup tour for the British team.

“Ben Kilner qualified for the finals for the first time and achieved a personal best result. Dom Harington and Kate Foster both pulled out top finishes in an Olympic qualifying event, and Lesley McKenna’s result has placed her inside the top 20 in the World Cup ranking list.

“The team will now head to Laax in Switzerland for the British National Championships, and after some well deserved downtime, will begin summer training to gear back up for the next World Cup event, the first of the 2009-2010 season in Cardrona, New Zealand.”

Snowboarder Ben Kilner this week declared his ambition to qualify for next year’s Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver after a weekend of competition in Canada produced a third top 20 finish of the season in the FIS World Cup for the British athlete. The 20-year-old Half Pipe specialist from Banchory faced a daunting prospect to qualify for the Vancouver Olympics at the start of the season, as only competitors ranked in the top 40 in the world next January will go to the Games the following month.

His 16th place in the FIS World Cup Half Pipe event at Stoneham, Canada at the weekend was his second best career result. Added to his earlier 15th in New Zealand last September and 19th in Gujo, Japan last month, it gives him a real chance of qualifying for Vancouver 2010. With two events remaining for this season, he is now ranked 28th in the world.

Kilner said: “I managed to keep my run clean with no errors so I managed to score quite high. The Halfpipe was in good shape and weather conditions suited me so I was in a good frame of mind when I dropped in. It was a good feeling crossing the line on my feet. I am pleased with a 16th overall. That should give me a boost of points towards my goal to get to the Olympics.”

Meanwhile, Lesley McKenna finished 14th in the women’s Half Pipe event and is also on course for a third appearance in the Olympics.

Tuesday 16th November
The Burton AM tour kicked off this weekend (15th November) in Bispingen, a small farming village in the north of Germany. To the delight of the British Junior Snowboard Team the village defied all the laws of nature with its massive indoor slope containing 23,500 square meters of snow.

Eight British Junior Snowboard Team athletes, Lewis Courtier-Jones (13, Coventry), Tom Hunt (14, Leeds), Henry Shackleton (13, Newbury), Dean Horsfield (16, Accrington), Mark Raper (16, Doncaster), James Smith (15, Hook), Jesse Smith (16, Edinburgh) and Gareth Andrews (16, Ampthill), and one British Freestyle Team member, Jamie Nichols (15, Bradford) travelled to Germany for the first leg of the 12 stage tour.

The set-up made eyes pop and the Junior team were raring to get going. In true Burton AM form, everything started on time and ran like clockwork. Lewis Courtier-Jones, Tom Hunt and Henry Shackleton were representing the team in the Youth Boys category (aged 8–14) which with 26 other international riders from eight nations – to do well in this category was not going to be an easy feat! The athletes had to really impress the judges with their riding skills as well as demonstrate the Burton AM tour motto “Join, Create, Progress”.

All the Youth Boys surpassed themselves with Lewis and Tom making it to the finals. Tom seduced the judges with 7s and front flips off the log jib, and Lewis laid down some slick half cabs 50-50 on, 180 off - they couldn’t fail to impress! This was good enough to gain the boys a top ten placing, Tom finishing in 6th and Lewis finishing in 8th position in their categories. Henry narrowly missed the top 10 finishing in 11th but, considering he had the ‘flu he deserves a massive pat on the back for even riding on the day.
The Junior Boys category (aged 15-19) was eagerly anticipated and the qualifying runs were nail bitingly exciting. Thirty riders from 5 countries were under pressure to match the standard set by the younger athletes in the Youth Boys category earlier in the day. On hand and rearing to go were Dean Horsefield, Gareth Andrews, Jesse Smith, James Smith and Mark Raper.

The team couldn’t have been more supportive of each other and although in competition with each other they encouraged, “hooted” and threw out the high fives, egging each other on to do their best and that is exactly what they did. Every one of the athletes rose to the challenge and three of the British Snowboard Team riders made it to the finals. Mark Raper shone with his switch pivots on the street rail to 7s on the kicker, only narrowly missing out on a podium position finishing 4th. Dean was hot on his heels riding a very impressive and inventive line not used by anyone else and was rewarded with 6th place. James, Gareth and Jesse also did well finishing in 14th, 15th and 18th respectively.
However, a special mention must go out to Jamie Nichols from the British Freestyle Team who brought back an incontestable 1st place in both the Junior Boys and Overall categories for the British Snowboard Team.
The British Snowboard Team had won the day overall and had all done it both with style and with humbleness – characteristics that are to their credit not only as athletes but also as individuals.
In an attempt to top the day, and to try get her own podium finish, British Junior Snowboard Team coach Sonia Shaw took the athletes to the Ralf Schumacher go-carting track but alas, her plans were thwarted by the team, all of them showing her how it should be done!
All the athletes are now ready for the next stage of the Burton AM tour when it hits British soil next weekend at Sno!zone, Castleford on the 22nd November - let’s get some results!

Results
Youth Boys
Position Name Home Town Age
6th Tom Hunt Leeds 14
8th Lewis Coutier-Jones Coventry 13
11th Henry Shackleton Newbury 13

Junior Boys
Position Name Home Town Age
1st Jamie Nichols Bradford 15
4th Mark Raper Doncaster 16
6th Dean Horsfield Accrington 16
14th James Smith Hook 15
15th Gareth Andrews Ampthill 16
18th Jesse Smith Edinburgh 16

Overall Boys
Position Name Home Town Age
1st Jamie Nichols Bradford 15
5th Mark Raper Doncaster 16
7th Dean Horsfield Accrington 16
12th Tom Hunt Leeds 14
18th Lewis Coutier-Jones Coventry 13
24th James Smith Hook 15
25th Gareth Andrews Ampthill 16
28th Jesse Smith Edinburgh 16

Last week the British Junior Snowboard Squad packed their bags with head coach Sonia Shaw and former British World Cup Snowboard Cross team rider, assistant coach for the week, James Foster!
Weather conditions looked favourable and everyone expected snow, however no-one could have predicted that there would be so much! In fact so much snow fell on the first night that we had reports that Geneva had been hit… in October! This unfortunately meant that the team could only make the best of the lower mountain as the peak, park and pipe were shut for the whole of their stay due to 85km/h winds and avalanche risks.
Most would be deterred, but nothing could dampen the team’s spirit, anyone who has had the privilege of riding with the team will know that their enthusiasm is intoxicating. With shovels in their bags and eagle eyes scouring the landscape for anything that could be adapted into a feature to ride on, the team started to hunt for an area they could build into a Jib Park. On the outskirts of Zermatt, they were fortunate to find a slope and park area that was just hidden from the heavy snowfall. Base camp had been found and not only that, the local workmen kindly contributed a few pipelines and barrier rails to the collective!
Now no-one could stop them.

Lewis Courtier-Jones, Jesse Smith and Joe Power all sessioned the cement pipe, bringing back the Dog Town and Z-boyz moves with style with laybacks on the cement and boardslides. Meanwhile head shaper Ollie Jackson had his crew of Mark Raper, Henry Shackleton, James Smith and Tom Hunt as they took on the rail to front flip/barrel line. They impressively built their line and Jesse got some awesome photos of them all.
Zermatt had never before seen such innovative thinking or style and the British Junior Squad certainly left their mark! This park was where the team spent most of the week training with the coaches also leading core-strength training sessions to top things off.

The other highlight of the week was the British Junior Squad fancy dress party for Halloween! Apparently this is not very common in Switzerland, so with Sonia as Dracula’s bride and James as a giant pumpkin, the Juniors put everyone to shame with their black bin bag “uniforms”. Invariably this lead to a snowball fight which the British Junior Squad walked away proudly. After all when is 50 v 8 ever going to be fair!
The Team are now looking forward to hitting Germany and showing their indoor skills at the Burton AM next week. The Burton AM Tour is one of Europe’s largest amateur freestyle snowboarding series, now into its fourth season, and this winter the tour will shake twelve resorts in twelve different countries. The Swatch TTR 2-star events give young riders born in 1989 or later the chance to show their freestyle skills and put themselves on the European snowboarding map. The qualifications are usually held in two jam sessions which mean riders get 75 minutes to stick some sick tricks in an attempt to grab the judges’ attention. The first three stops of the tour are indoor events, the first taking place on 15 November 2008 in Bispingen, Northern Germany. The tour stop winners will receive a guaranteed starting slot for the slopestyle competition at the Burton European Open (BEO) in Laax, Switzerland, and prizes from tour sponsors Burton, RED, and Anon.

British Junior Snowboard Squad Team members:
Ollie Jackson (16) – Broadstairs
Dean Horsfield (16) – Acclington, Lancashire
James Smith (15) - Goole
Sam Turnbull (17) - Northallerton
Henry Shackleton (13) - Newbury
Mark Raper (16) - Doncaster
Jo Power (16) - Switzerland
Declan Power (16) - Switzerland
Jesse Smith (16) - Edinburgh
Gareth Andrews (16) - Bedforshire
Tom Hunt (14) - Leeds
Aimee Fuller (17) – County Down
Lewis Courtier-Jones (13) - France

Lesley McKenna (Aviemore) got her Northern Hemisphere leg of the LG FIS Snowboard World Cup off to an excellent start last week (Friday 31st October) when she finished 5th at the World Cup Half Pipe competition in Saas Fee, Switzerland.

Severe weather conditions forced the qualification and finals to be run on the same day and the weather quickly became the dominating factor in both the qualification and final runs. The change in format meant that the athletes only had one run in which to qualify for the finals instead of the usual two. In these difficult weather conditions, Lesley was one of the few riders who had the skills and experience to deal with the weather, qualifying for the finals in 6th place and then improving on this in the finals to finish 5th, only marginally missing out on 4th place. This result means Lesley is ranked joint 8th on the World Cup Standings.

Britain’s Kate Foster (Painswick) was also riding in the ladies’ competition but was unfortunate to fall during the one run qualification, resulting in her finishing in 29th position.

In the men’s event Britain’s top male snowboarders, Dan Wakeham (Plymouth), Ben Kilner (Banchory), Dom Harington (Leeds) and Sam Cullum (Bracknell) were also competing, achieving mixed results in the weather conditions.

Dan Wakeham finished 27th, Dom Harington 28th and Ben Kilner was unlucky to miss out on the top 30 finishing 32nd. Sam Cullum was unlucky not to do better, being caught by the wind and finishing 56th. The competition was won by Janne Korpi of Finland in the men’s contest and Jiayu Liu from China in the women’s.

British World Cup Half Pipe Team coach Leo Addington commented “the athletes had to put it all on the line just to get a result. They had to make the choice whether to go big on their one and only qualification run to make it to the finals but risk falling and finishing last, or whether they to stick a solid run down to try get a result. Even to just get a result every trick had to be landed perfectly”.

The British Snowboard Team takes a break from the LG FIS Snowboard World Cup until December where Zoe Gillings will be in action in her second Snowboard Cross World Cup of the season in Arosa, Switzerland between 19th and 20th December.

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