Red Bull Nanshan Open

Beijing, CHINA – January 11th, 2010 – Kiwi Nick Hyne made it through to the four-man Super Finals at today’s 8th Red Bull Nanshan Open and ended the day in fourth place, just one step away from the podium. Teammate Nick Brown finished the day in eleventh place.

Photo: Nick Hyne Credit: Getty Images Sports

Cloudy yet wind-free conditions in the Quiksilver Nanshan Mellow Park created a moody backdrop as yesterday’s 12 qualified riders stepped up to do battle on day two of the Nanshan Open, Asia’s largest stop on the Swatch Ticket To Ride World Snowboard Tour.

As the morning’s final session of this 4Star TTR event got underway, the judges would be forced to slice the field of 12 down to just four – a task easier said than done!

By the time lunchtime rolled through, Juuso Laivisto (FIN), David Bertschinger Karg (SUI), Sergey Lapushkin (RUS), and Nick Hyne (NZ) had impressed when it counted and secured their place in the afternoon’s Super Finals.

In the end, Laivisto wowed both judges and crowd with a clean and technical run, and found himself atop the podium.

“I’m really happy! It’s my first time in China and the resort reminds me of my home mountain, so it was kinda special to win here,” said Lavisto.

Lapushkin improved on his 10th place finish at last year’s event taking second place. Third place would go to Bertschinger Karg, unfortunately not able to stomp the clean runs that had him placed first going into the finals.

Taking fourth place, Hyne was pleasantly surprised on his result considering his luck leading up to the competition.

“I’m stoked, my boardbag only just arrived yesterday morning and I had to do the practice day on a borrowed board. The park here is great with some good variety, and the whole trip has just been super fun.”

The riders now get to enjoy a trek at the Great Wall, icebiking on Houhai lake, fake-handbag shopping for their girlfriends and perhaps, just maybe, one or two after parties. Zaijian!

8th Red Bull Nanshan Open Results

1. Juuso Laivisto
2. Sergey Lapushkin
3. David BertschingerKarg
4. Nick Hyne
5. Erik Botner
6. Matti Kinnunen
7. Marc Swoboda
8. Atsushi Ishikawa
9. Lei Wang
10. Yongho Lee