The 4Star 9th Red Bull Nanshan Open brought some top-level slopestyle competition to the Nike 9.0 Nanshan park in China this weekend where Finnish rider, Janne Korpi, took home the win. There were a total of 22 riders vying for a piece of the $30,000 USD prize purse and a maximum of 500 TTR ranking points. Janne beat out the other invited riders from around the world and seven local Chinese riders who qualified through a preliminary event earlier in the week. Second place went to Swedish rider, Anton Bilare, and Sergey Lapushkin, from Russia, took third. With his win this weekend, Janne moved himself up a couple of notches in the Swatch TTR World Rankings to World No. 5.

Out of the 12 riders who made their way through the semi finals, the young Swede, Anton Bilare, really gave the other competitors a run for their money with his huge frontside 1080 double cork off the first kicker followed by a frontside 720 late cork, a tail-press on the up-cannon and boardslide on the down-rail and finished with a backside rodeo over the spine. Janne Korpi, who finished last year’s TTR season in World No. 5, has now climbed up to that same spot and is one to keep an eye on in the fight for the Top 5 positions for 2010/11. Janne beat Anton’s score by showing off all four 900 rotations in his top runs, as well as, a smooth 360-off the down rail in the jib section and front flip up the mini step-up.

The Chinese snowboard scene has really gained momentum over the years since the Nanshan Open began and the local riders are on the come-up. 20-year old Chinese rider, He Wei, put down a solid run that included a nice frontside 720 and a frontside rodeo to take eight place; the highest final ranking for a Chinese rider since the event joined the Swatch TTR World Tour.