Aimee Fuller bagged her first TTR podium spot of the season last weekend at the Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam in Dachstein Austria. The comp, which traditionally kicks off the Northern Hemisphere TTR season, saw a large contingent of Brits descend on the small Austrian town of Schladming, for a weekend of good shredding and even better times.
With the park shaped sweetly, it was only the weather that held the riders back – high winds meant that Friday’s qualification didn’t go quite as well as some people had hoped, and people found themselves struggling for speed on the second kicker. Several of the Brits were knocked out after struggling with the speed, including Lewis Courtier-Jones. Jamie Nicholls, who had high hopes of repeating his recent success at the Freeze Festival in London, unfortunately hit the knuckle during a practise session, battering his ankle and knocking him out of the rest of the comp. But Aimee Fuller made the absolute most of the setup, throwing down a clean run of a back three, nosegrab and a sweet laid-out backflip to qualify through first!
In the men’s comp, French ripper Victor de la Rue came through at the top of the qualification tables, setting up what looked to be a pretty epic battle with his Rip Curl team-mate (and last year’s winner) Elias Elhardt for the Sunday. With Sunday dawning bright and not quite so breezy, the riders tore into the course. Elias whipped out a back ten double over the slightly sketchy second booter to claim first place and win the best trick prize – a surf trip to Bali. In the girls categories, all British eyes were on Aimee, who stomped her run nicely, but couldn’t quite match the skills of last year’s TTR champ Enni Rukajarvi, who’s cab 5, front 3 and back 5 combo just pipped her into first place. But Aimee’s second place finish is still here highest in a major TTR comp, and surely bodes well for the rest of her season – Nice one Aimz!
RESULTS:
Men
1 Elias Elhardt (GER)
2 Ville Paumola (FIN)
3 Tor Lundstrom (SWE)
Women
1 Enni Rukajaervi (FIN)
2 Aimee Fuller (GBR)
3 Katarzyna Rusin (POL)
