Japanese Domination At Big Air Chur
A wet and wild one at the World Cup season-opener on Saturday Big Air Chur didn’t slow down team Japan as the squad took five out of six podium positions on the evening, with Kokomo Murase coming out on top for the women and Hiroto Ogiwara leading a Japanese sweep for the men with his first career World Cup victory.
After freeski finals were cancelled the previous day due to the impossible situation created by the weather in Chur overnight on Thursday, it took a massive effort by the organisers and the jump crew from Schneestern to bring the competition venue back to World Cup-level condition in time for the Big Air Chur snowboard event.
And the jump was indeed in excellent shape on Saturday. With some fair weather in the morning and early afternoon, qualifications went off without a hitch, lead by Great Britain’s Mia Brookes and Yang Wenlong of China.
However, the weather turned a few hours after qualifications, and with rain and dropping temperatures greeting riders for finals it was anyone’s guess how nighttime competition would go in conditions that could best be described as “tricky.”
As it turned out, seven women and 10 men in finals were more than up to the task, with a an incredible display of riding going down from start to finish.
18-year-old Murase claimed her second career big air World Cup win almost two years to the day after claiming her first at the Big Air Chur in 2021, stomping a backside double cork 1080 Weddle on run one and then a frontside 1080 truck driver on her third and final hit for a two-jump score of 179.25 and Saturday’s victory.
Second place went to Murase’s teammate and last year’s Big Air Chur winner Reira Iwabuchi, who also put down a backside double cork Weddle on one run, and then followed it up with a frontside 1080 melon on run three for a score of 175.50 and her 14th career World Cup podium.
Rounding out the top-3 and claiming the first World Cup podium of her young career was 17-year-old Mia Brookes, as the Bakuriani 2023 slopestyle World Champion lead things off with the highest scoring trick of the evening - a massive cab 1080 melon - and then followed that up with a backside 900 Indy in run two for 169.75 and third place.
Over on the men’s side of things the Japanese riders laid a beating on the jump and on the podium, reminding us all why they won the FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe Nations Cup trophy last season.
Leading the way was Hiroto Ogiwara, who locked down his first World Cup podium in the form of a victory with a switch backside 1620 melon on his first hit, and following it up with the switch frontside 1620 Weddle on run number two for a score of 171.50. Run three was a victory lap, and Ogiwara made good on it with a massive corked 360 to send the crowd back to the music festival on a high.
Earning a two-jump score of 168.00 - and earning his second World Cup podium in just his second World Cup start - was Kira Kimura, reversing the order of Ogiwara’s same two spins with a switch frontside 1620 frontside grab on run one and a switch backside 1620 weddle on run two.
Finally, rounding out the podium in third place and completing the Japanese sweep was last year’s big air Chur winner Takeru Otsuka, who went switch backside 1620 melon on run one, flipped the script and went backside 1620 melon on run two, and walked away with a 167.50 and his sixth career World Cup top-3.
Despite the rain and the weather-related struggles, the crowd still showed up in a huge way for the 2023 iteration of the Big Air Chur, and even with the steady October precipitation coming down spirits were high as the party turned back to the main musical stage and continued on into the night.
U.S. Snowboard Team rider and Olympian Sean FitzSimons competed in the first World Cup of the season, a big air event in Chur, Switzerland. The event featured the world’s best snowboarders, showcasing their air awareness on Switzerland’s largest freestyle ramp.
In qualifications, FitzSimons landed a frontside triple cork 1440, securing a spot in the finals. During the nighttime finals, FitzSimons went big with three runs: front triple 1440 weddle, back 1620 weddle and back triple 1440 weddle, respectively.
FitzSimons finished fifth overall, trailing behind a full Japan podium sweep, with Hiroto Ogiwara in first, Kira Kimura in second and Takeru Otsuka in third.
FitzSimons has an impressive track record, having competed in both slopestyle and big air in the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, as well as taking home first at the Laax 2022 World Cup in slopestyle.
U.S. Snowboard Team athletes Jake Canter, Brooklyn DePriest and Fynn Bullock-Womble, who landed a new trick, cab 1440, also competed in qualifications, but did not qualify for finals. Next up, the Hydro Flask U.S. Snowboard Team will travel to Beijing, China for the next contest of the 2023-24 season.
