The Burton European continued today with the Men’s Slopestyle semi-finals. It was the first day top seeded riders like Peetu Piiroinen or Iouri Podladtchikov were in action to meet the 18 men who made it through pre-qualifications and qualifications earlier this week. 16 riders advance to the Slopestyle finals on Friday, Jan. 15th. Finland represented strong today with 6 riders moving into the finals. 20-year-old Janne Lipsanen finished in 1st today with a score of 81.33.

By the time semi-finals started the weather wasn’t as perfect as yesterday and visibility wasn’t the best, but still it was good enough to run the semi-finals. The slopestyle course was in really good shape and feedback from the riders has been very positive during the week in regards to the course itself.

Janne Lipsanen did the slopestyle pre-qualifications earlier this week and was 3rd in the slopestyle qualification. He must have gained a lot of confidence during the qualification process and was unbeatable today. He started his run with a frontside boardslide on the box, a backflip off the pole jam, a backside disaster on the jib barrel, a frontside lipslide to frontside boardslide on the box, a frontside inverted 7 on the quarterpipe finishing up with a cab 900, a frontside 720 and a cork backside 720 on the kicker-line. Norwegian rider Gjermund Braaten (19 years old) came in second with a score of 81.50 followed by another Finn, 17-year-old Roope Tonteri. All three top-ranked riders came through all the way from the pre-qualifications, so the young guns are in good form!

On Thursday the 11th Burton European Open continues with the men’s halfpipe qualifications and semi-finals.

Men’s Slopestyle Semi-Finals Results

1. Lipsanen Janne FIN RIPCURL 88.17
2. Braaten Gjermund NOR OAKLEY 81.50
3. Tonteri Roope FIN BURTON 76.33
4. Piiroinen Peetu FIN BURTON 75.67
5. Podladtchikov Iouri SUI VOLCOM 75.00
6. Backstrom Kevin SWE BURTON 72.33
7. Bang Mikkel NOR BURTON 71.50
8. Uotila Ville FIN ATOMIC 70.50
9. Haller Christian SUI BURTON 70.00
10. Nicholls Jamie GBR QUIKSILVER 69.17
11. Arvidsson Nils SWE RIPCURL 67.50
12. Holvik Tore NOR SWEET 67.33
13. Paumola Ville FIN QUIKSILVER 64.00
14. Maurer Stephan SUI BURTON 61.67
15. Ryan Sean USA FORUM 60.00
16. Koski Markku FIN 32 SNOWBOARD 59.00

If you can’t make it to Laax, watch the semi-finals and finals live on www.GO211.com:
Jan. 14th Live Web Cast start @ 12h00 (CET)
Jan. 15th Live Web Cast start @ 11h15 (CET)
Jan. 16th Live Web Cast start @ 11h15 (CET)

If you don’t have the chance to watch it live, you can watch the replay at 8 pm (CET) or 2 pm (EST).