Roland Hofer wins men’s snowboard contest at Freeride Battle Kanin 2010 in Slovenia. Competition stopped due to poor visibility.
On Kanin mountain the Austrian snowboarder Roland Hofer won the fifth edition of Freeride Battle, a Freeride World Qualifier event. Women’s competition had to be cancelled due to poor visibility.
Male snowboarders finished their run in Freeride Battle Kanin 2010 before a cloud covered the mountain and the contest had to be stopped.
All 17 male snowboarders made it to the bottom.
All 6 female riders were still at the start when the competition was stopped. Conditions did not improve and later the women’s competition was cancelled since the weather forecast for Sunday, the reserve day, was bad.
The title of snowboard champion of Freeride Battle 2010 went to Roland Hofer of Austria. It is the 2nd FWQ win for the 28-year old park shaper and snowboarding instructor from Saalbach-Hinterglemm. He won the 2009 edition of Mystic Experience in Aosta, Italy. “It is my first time here, I like the mountains and there is lots of snow. It is my third freeride season. One of the reasons I compete is because in freeriding your are never as safe as you are in competition.”
The 2008 and 2009 Freeride Battle winner Niklas Hollsten of Finland placed second and another Austrian Christian Schnabel from Arlberg placed third.
Freeride Battle organizer Jan Maček wraps it up: “I am sorry we had to end the event without a women’s competition at all. We’ve been doing our best to ensure at least one run to everybody as long as it was safe. In the end safety reasons prevailed, we had no choice. Being a part of Freeride World Qualifier series not only brings us top riders who even in hard conditions showed some super-exciting descents, it also requires more responsibility from us. Apart from great riding we were also excited to see new faces and make new friends. All this keeps us motivated for further events.”
Results
Snowboard men
1. Roland Hofer (Aut) 22 points
2. Niklas Hollsten (Fin) 18,7
3. Christian Schnabel (Aut) 18,2
4. Juuso Nissinen (Fin) 17,1
5. Irin Van Helfteren (Ned) 16,3