The first stop of the Nike SB European Series, the Barcelona AM, got lit up yesterday at the Skate Agora plaza BDN. Qualifiers saw 20 skaters bounce through to meet up with 32 pre-qualified in a flood-lit semis.
An on form and up for it crowd filled the eastern bleachers and created noise throughout the day cranking the energy on the park and AMs that tore it up.
Qualifiers were 78 deep and competition was tough with so few semi spots up for grabs. Young Jonas Carlsson from Norway surprised and stoked out everyone with man sized tricks out of a 13 year old boys body and Brazilian Ivan Moteiro took charge of the park in his heat with a faultless run, giving him a pass to semis and then landing the right side of the cut in to Saturday’s main event.
The semi finals upped the ante with a line up of Europe’s top AMs stepping up to try and secure a spot in the finals. With a variety of styles and tricks on display judges were saying that it was one of the toughest comps to score. Farid Ulrich got his position in finals with smooth, fast and stylish flow. Phil Zwijsen used the whole park with solid consistency but Vincent Milou goes into tomorrow’s final in first place out of a 12 man start list who will compete for part of the €10,000 purse on offer.
Doors open at Skate Agora for tomorrow’s finals at 5.30 PM with the comp starting at 6.30. Entrance is free.
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