Blue Tomato “Battle in the Arena”: Glowing Rails in frosty temperatures! – Snowboard & Freeski

Winners Stefan Langgartner (Snowboard) and Mani Eder (Freeski) fired up Munich’s Olympic Park.
On Saturday February 9th the international boardsport shop Blue Tomato invited to the Theatron in Munich’s Olympic Park to the second edition of the “Battle in the Arena”. While next door in the Olympia Swimming Hall the bathers did their tricks and flips from the diving boards into 27°C warm water, outside the overall 84 snowboarders and freeskiers fired up themselves and the crowd with some sick jib-action in -10°C.
After the international boardsport shop Blue Tomato opened three shops in Bavaria over the last couple month, they wanted to spoil the actionsport-community of Munich not only with the unique range of hard- and softgoods, but also with the finest snowboard- and freeski-action. To show the crowd the most stylish and gnarliest tricks and to take home some of the 10.000 Euro pricemoney, all in all 84 snowboarders and freeskiers lined up for the “Ballte in the Arena” in the Olympic Park Munich.

Where usually concerts and culture-events take place, all jibbers found a superb and innovative stairset built by Sugarparks and IOU Snow. The stairset included a long downrail, a doublekink rail and a pipeline that was more than proper for some hard transfer-tricks. The essential stage of the Theatron was converted into a landing and served as base for a wallride, that helped the riders from dropping into the lake. Thanks to the sponsors Adidas Eyewear, Nitro Snowboards, Häxa and the Snowpark Kitzsteinhorn a total pricemoney of 10.000 Euros waited for the winners of the sections Rookies, Ladies and Men.
During a 2-hour-qualification-jam-session, ten men and three women of the 36 male and eleven female snowboarders qualified for the night-final at the Battle in the Arena. But before that Marvin Salmina from Austria won the Adidas Best Trick Award with a “frontside switchup to switch bluntslide 270 out” and cashed 250,- Euros for the win. “When I saw that the other guys were stepping it up, I tried to do some harder tricks as well, but unfortunately twisted my knee. But the pricemoney is a nice consolation,” Marvin commented on his win and his injured knee from the litter of the ambulance. For the rookies and the ladies it was Alex Aulbach and Nadine Härtinger, who convenienced the judges the most with their style. In the snowboard men final it could not have been any closer. Both Jeremy Unterberger, who caught the crowds and the judges attention with some wild transfers from the pipeline to the downrail and made the third place at the end, as well as Steve Küberl from Innsbruck, who threw down his tricks in style with all his routine, could have taken home the biggest check in this night. But this one went out to Stefan Langgartner, who showed his massive style with tricks like “backside lipslides” on the doublekink rail and “cab 270 to frontside boardslide revert” on the downrail. “The setup was really cool to ride and the level of riding really high. Even with the hard journey and all the traffic to get here, it was lots of fun riding here today,” Stefan draw a line under the event.
The rail-jam for the freeskiers saw 34 male and 3 female riders. The ten best men should qualify for the finals at night. The three ladies already were the final and could battle the arena among themselves. So it was Rosina Friedel from Bad Tölz who knocked Kathi Busl and Annika Müller down to the second and third place. Because of his big variety of tricks Tobias Müller from Munich took home the rookie-title. But before the final went down, the Adidas Best Trick Award wanted to be given to the rider with the best trick in his bag. With a “left 270 pretzel 270 out” on the doublekink rail, Flo Geyer showed that he was one of the best in this night in the Olympic Park. In the finals Flo made the third place, because Torge Nagel from Hamburg and Mani Eder from Mayrhofen could impress the judges just a little more. Probably his “misty 450 off” gave the edge for the win of the shaper from Mayrhofen. A loud “Yeeeah!” was all Mani could say about his win.
To the sounds and beats of the DJ Set Defneetiv on the Red Bull Event Truck, who provided the riders and the crowds with fresh sounds all day long, the day or night of the second “Ballte in the Arena” faded to an end and everybody gathered from the impressive view of the ice-covered Olympic Lake to the inofficial after-contest-party in one of Munich many bars and clubs.

RANKINGS:

Snowboard Men:
1.STEFAN LANGGARTNER (AUT)
2.STEVE KÜBERL (AUT)
3.JEREMY UNTERBERGER (AUT)

Snowboard Ladies:
1.NADINE HÄRTINGER (GER)
2.IVIKA JÜRGENSON (EST)
3.SABINA PINTAR (SL)

Snowboard Rookies:
1.ALEX AULBACH (GER)
2.FELIX WILD (GER)
3.ALEX MOSLER (GER)

Freeski Men:
1.MANI EDER (AUT)
2.TORGE NAGEL (GER)
3.FLO GEYER (GER)

Freeski Ladies:
1.ROSINA FRIEDEL (GER)
2.KATHI BUSL (GER)
3.ANNIKA MÜLLER (GER)

Freeski Rookies:
1.TOBIAS MÜLLER (GER)
2.VINZ WÖRLE (GER)
3.FABIAN LANGKAU (GER)