On a dramatic night that delivered some never-before-seen tricks, record-extending runs and major upsets, Chinese snowboarder Yang Wenlong made sure he didn't go unnoticed at the Big Air World Cup series' return to Beijing.

He actually ended up being an unexpected crowd-pleaser on an otherwise disappointing night for Chinese fans on Sunday, by soaring to his career first podium finish in the series. It was something to get the partisan crowd back on their feet and cheering, following home favorite and reigning Olympic champion Su Yiming's crushing performances.

China's Yang Wenlong competes in the men's snowboard Big Air during the FIS Snowboard & Freeski Big Air World Cup Shougang at the Beijing Shougang Industrial Park on Sunday. WEI XIAOHAO/CHINA DAILY

Entering the 10-man final virtually unknown among a strong field, Yang, who'd qualified only once for the final round at a Cup event before Sunday, turned out to be a show-stopper at west Beijing's Shougang Industrial Park, as he landed two solid runs hurtling down the monster Olympic slope to score a combined 159.25 points and finishing third on the second leg of the 2024-25 World Cup season.

Big air involves skiers or snowboarders tackling a vertical drop and performing a variety of flips, spins and grabs before landing on the slope. Each finalist gets three attempts, with the combined score of their two best runs counting for the ranking.

Yang's unexpected, yet inspiring, podium finish, which was his first in 13 World Cup events since his debut in 2017, reinvigorated the Beijing crowd, after the shocking blow of Su's false landings in his first two runs in the final. They cost him the chance to defend his title on the iconic slope.

As back-to-back winner in Shougang at Beijing 2022 and last year's Cup event, Su eventually finished at the bottom of table in Sunday's final, despite successfully landing his third run. It casts a shadow on his attempt to defend the Olympic gold, where upcoming young challengers have pushed the level of competition insanely high.

Leading the challenge for Su's crown is Japanese rider Hiroto Ogiwara, one of Su's training partners under coach Yasuhiro Sato, and Italy's teen prospect Ian Matteoli, who won gold and silver, respectively, on Sunday with some jaw-dropping tricks that almost redefined the limits of the sport.

Matteoli made Sunday's Shougang Big Air an event to remember, with a historic first-ever 2160 (six full rotations) to tailgrab executed in an official competition on his first run. That alone earned him an event-high single score of 97.75 points.

Still, it was the quality and consistency of Ogiwara that prevailed, as the 19-year-old standout topped the men's field with a winning combined score of 169.5 points, four more than Matteoli's total, from his two clean 1800 tricks.

Riding alongside the sport's top daredevils and joining them on the podium, Yang hailed his maiden World Cup medal as a long-overdue confidence boost.

"I am really excited to finally execute my tricks the way I wanted to in an official competition at the World Cup," said Yang, who landed two tricks, both involving 1800-degree rotations, in his first two runs to rousing cheers from the Shougang crowd.

"In a lot of previous competitions, I was too nervous to land the tricks that I'd completed in training runs. Tonight, I just carried a very good momentum from the qualification rounds to the final, and I enjoyed competing against the world's best, at such a world-class venue, so much.

"I am so happy, but at the same time, I won't get carried away by a medal tonight. I will try to maintain my good form and keep pushing for the 2026 Olympics," said Yang, who was drafted to China's newly-established snowboard freestyle national program in 2016 from a college martial arts team in his home city of Shenyang.

Thanks to his years of martial arts training, Yang's advantage in bodily coordination and core strength has enabled him to adapt quickly to the freestyle discipline, having landed neat 1920 tricks in training together with Su, with his next target set on cracking the 2160 barrier.

"The past year's training has been really helpful," Yang said of his fast progress from last year's 41st-place finish at Shougang. "We had a very solid offseason fitness program and an airbag training camp, we then had another effective preseason camp at Saas-Fee in the Swiss Alps, where I practiced and improved my tricks."

"I still have room for improvement in developing my trick difficulty and variety. I am looking forward to throwing some 2160 tricks in competition as well. I won't push it, though. I will take it a step at a time for solid progression."

Despite his crushing disappointment on his home slope, Su, who shot to fame by winning two medals, including a silver in slopestyle, at the Beijing Olympics in 2022, will come back stronger, said his long-term mentor Sato.

"He's still recovering, yet we still tried to win tonight with two 1980 tricks, and he could have if he landed them," Sato said of Su's buildup for the Beijing leg after taking a monthlong break to recover from a shoulder injury.

"He's really sad now, this is a wall we have to break through all the way to the Olympic Games," said Sato, who's been coaching Su since 2018.

In the earlier top-eight women's final, Britain's teen sensation Mia Brookes landed a stunning third-run trick, following a successful first run and a false landing in the second, to claim her first World Cup title in Beijing with a winning total of 179.75 points.

Japan's Mari Fukada finished second, scoring 176.75 points, with two-time Olympic champion Anna Gasser taking third with 169.00.

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)