NESCAFÉ CHAMPS LEYSIN 2011 - 20 years of snowboarding

A big week is in store for the 5Star NESCAFÉ CHAMPS Leysin as the event prepares to celebrate its 20th anniversary. This event has brought many young talents into the limelight and continues to do so with its progressive slopestyle course that includes a superpipe into the setup. Top male and female athletes from all over Europe will be heading to Leysin, Switzerland next week from Feburary 5th to 8th 2011, to compete for a share in the $50,000 USD prize purse and a maximum of 850 Swatch TTR ranking points on offer. The finals for both male and female riders will take place on Saturday, February 12th.<br />
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Top Riders Invited to Compete<br />
With an open qualification system, the NESCAFÉ CHAMPS Leysin offers an opportunity for the up-and-coming talent to qualify into the semi finals and measure their skills against the invited riders. With the creatively mixed course, only the best overall riders will make it to the finals and top riders will be heating up the action. The course starts off with a table with 3 options, followed by a hip leading into the 130 meter long superpipe and finishing off with another table with 2 options and a quarter wall-ride in front of the crowd. <br />
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In the line up this year are a host of top riders such as current Swatch TTR World No. 17, Jan Scherrer, one of Austria’s new rising stars who recently took his first 6Star podium with a third place at the O’Neill Evolution halfpipe in Davos, Switzerland in January and he also took sixth in slopestyle last week at the 4Star Stimorol Engadinsnow, showing his skills as an all around solid rider at the tender age of 16. Jan will face some tough competition from fellow up and coming rookies such as Swiss ripper, Pat Burgener, as well as Finnish rookies, Sami Luhtanen and Petja Piiroinen, the younger brother of reigning TTR Champion Peetu Piiroinen. Also on the riders list are some seasoned riders such as Swiss style master, Gian Simmen and Risto Mattila (FIN), who recently placed 9th at the 4Star Red Bull Nanshan Open, in China.