FCR World Championships

Slalom Skateboarding in Sweden

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Hans Koraeus
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Post by Hans Koraeus » Fri Oct 04, 2002 2:53 am

There will be one Swede to enter the FCR World Championships in Avila Beach and Morro Bay, CA (October 11-13). Our "old" european champ Jani Söderhäll will make the effort to travel over there and take the pulse of the american slalom scene. Even though his physical shape is not on top rumours say his technique is as good as one can expect.

We'll see how far it will take him over there. And hopefully I will get some more inside information here in the Swedish forum before and during the competition.

For more info about the contest have a look in the forum [Racecs & Results][FCR 2002 Series USA].

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Post by Jani Soderhall » Thu Oct 10, 2002 6:06 am

Ok, Ihave now arrived in Morro Bay. I'm sitting in an Internet Cafe on Main Street, which is where the Sunday finals will be.

Haven't tried the board on American ground yet, but will do so tomorrow, when I will go to Avila beach where the qualification and Saturday giant slalom will be held.

Haven't seen any others yet, but I guess most of them will arrive tomorrow.

More news to follow...

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Post by Chris Eggers » Thu Oct 10, 2002 6:29 am

hey jani! i am still at attilas house just fine tuning our boards! see you tomorrow afternoon, we will leave LA at around 8 in the morning! Hope the hotel is allright?
chris

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Post by Hans Koraeus » Sat Oct 12, 2002 7:37 pm

Latest news from Jani!

After phone call from him Saturday, October 12th 09:00 (CA time).

After two lonely days at Attila Beach (Wednesday and Thursday) without any skaters in sight finally Friday with the Qualifying Rounds came along. Racers in all classes not pre-seeded were to fight for a place in the finals.

Jani had already looked at the sight for the finals that was supposed to be flat in American terms. He thought himself it was downhill even though not very much. But when coming to the qualification sight in Attila beach he understood why they called the other area flat. This slalom qualification area was really steep. The first rides he had to slow down the speed 3 times with his foot. And that was without using the start ramp. After a while he got some hard wind against him in a run and he could make it to the bottom correctly. After that he seemed to get the hang of it.

He was really surprised over the high level of all the skaters. This was not going to be an easy thing to qualify. But the first step went well after two qualification runs in the C-group. He was now ready for the B-group qualification. And suddenly it was serious. If he lost his 2 run race now he was out and the hope to be in the Sunday final gone. So he thought he just had to put everything he had and hope that it would be enough. After the first run he was 0,2 seconds before his opponent. So it was not over yet. He still had to one more “good run” to succeed. In the second run he once again did very well while his opponent missed out a little bit so the time difference was 1,2 second. So now his first goal to be in the final on Sunday was achieved. It seems like he will battle out against legendary “Badland” skater Charlie Ransom in his first final run. Charlie is ranked 3:rd in the FCR ranking so that will be a hard nut to crack.

There are a lot of skaters in the competition (about 90) and the atmosphere between skaters is very good. Now he will have a try at the giant slalom qualification as well. But here he doesn’t have any big hopes. Talking on the phone while the course was being set he thought the course looked okay so maybe there was a little chance he could qualify for the finals after all. You will have more information about this in the Sweden forum very soon.

Some of the other Europeans to qualify in the PRO class were Chris Hart and Maurus Strobel (best time). Chris Eggers made it to the final as well in the AM class.

It seems there are some comments on how the first final runs have been set up. Some of the very best slalom skaters will meet already in the first run. And I don’t think they use a losers bracket system. That would otherwise have solved that problem.

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Post by Hans Koraeus » Sun Oct 13, 2002 2:58 am

Jani after his qualification ride...

"I didn't have a chance! I was 1,5 seconds behind after the first run and 1 second behind in the second run.”

This was not a discipline for Europeans. It seems like no European made it into the final. Many were not satisfied with the course setting. The first four cones were almost impossible and once you managed to get through you had almost no speed left. But it worked well for some of the old boys like John Hutson, Steve Olson and Duane Peters.

Paul Dunn had so far done the most exceptional thing. In his first run he ran out of the course after 2 cones. The rules then give him a time of his opponent + 1,5 seconds. Then in his second run he still managed to win.

Now we just have to wait for Sunday finals and hope Jani can make up for his poor Giant slalom performance.

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Post by Jani Soderhall » Mon Oct 14, 2002 2:16 am

Ok, it is all over now.

I had to race Charlie Ransom, yesterdays winner, once more, and I did pretty well in the first run. 0.088 ahead of him. I guess he started sweating. Everybody (ie all my friends) were cheering, but I couldn't keep it up in the second run. My start was way too slow so I had no speed in the first cones, and Charlie was already running full steam down the course. I tried, but couldn't catch up. It was good fun though, and I did give Charlie a hard time.

Looking at my time I could have made it down to the 8th place or so.

The rest of the day was full of good racing. I'm very impressed with the overall level of racing, because there are not only a few really good guys, but rather 30 or so out of which 16 could win on any single day.

Thanks to FCR for organizing this race!

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Post by Jani Soderhall » Mon Oct 14, 2002 2:20 am

Paul Price won the Open Class World Championship title in the tight slalom on Sunday, so he defended the Europeans today.

Well done Paul!

Now all of you out there reading this, get on your board and start practising!

See you all at a future race!

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Post by Jani Soderhall » Mon Oct 14, 2002 3:11 am

...and Marvin Kory from Switzerland won the Juniors class tight slalom. He is riding for Airflow skateboards, a Swiss brand.

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Post by William Tway » Mon Oct 14, 2002 5:14 pm

Nice job Jani. Sounds like you had a lot of fun out West. Please consider entering the upcoming WV Mountain race this weekend. It would be great to see you there.

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