19-year-olf Finn wins the world’s biggest girls-only snowboard event at Saalbach Hinterglemm (AUT)

In a high-class competition, Enni Rukajärvi took victory at the 7th Roxy Chicken Jam 2010 at Saalbach Hinterglemm. At the world’s biggest snowboard event for girls only, the 19-year-old Finn won over double Roxy Chicken Jam champ Cheryl Maas (NED) and Norwegian Kjersti Buaas Oestgaard who took second and third. The leader of the Swatch TTR Women’s ranking list Sarka Pancochova (CZE) ended up in fourth.

“I’m very surprised I won here”, Enni Rukajärvi stated after winning the 6-Star event of the Ticket To Ride (TTR) World Women’s Snowboard Tour at the Nightpark Saalbach Hinterglemm. “I enjoyed the contest, it was really high-level. So good riders, I haven’t seen that before!“ At her first big event for the Roxy team, the Finnish rider convinced the jury with her huge and clean jumps and took the lion’s share of the US$ 50,000 prize-money. At her winning run, she showed a 50/50 at the down box, a frontside 360 tail grab, a backside 540 indy and a cab 540 at the kickers as well as a 50/50 nosepress at the Roxy up-down box.

Due to the high-class field of participants, the jury with Oliver Heinrich, Mone Monsberger and Rob Mathera had a tough job to determine the winner. 36 riders from all over the world took part in the qualifications on Friday. The six best of them then met the 18 seeded riders at the finals on Saturday. In a two-hour jam session, the judges picked the best eight riders to ride the super finals. Here, each rider had three runs with the best one counting. “The level of riding went up a lot”, second-placed Cheryl Maas (NED) said. “A lot of the girls were doing 720’s already in the qualifications which we didn’t see any of the other years. In the finals we also saw a lot of switch riding, like cab 540’s and switch backside spins, and that’s good to see.” Thanks to her backside 720 tail grab in the super-finals, Cheryl Maas was rewarded with US$ 1,500 taking the JBL Progressive Award for the best trick.

Third-ranked Kjersti Buaas Oestgaard from Norway was also thrilled by the event which was held at Saalbach Hinterglemm for the first time this year: ”The park is really good, they really did a good job with this. And the town is so cosy, it’s amazing, we only had to walk five minutes from the hotel to get to the park.” Apart from the freestyle snowboarding world elite, the Roxy Chicken Jam 2010 also attracted a lot of spectators who cheered for the riders enthusiastically. “There were a lot of people watching and that’s entertaining and pushing me to do better”, Kjersti Buaas Oestgaard said.

Also for the first time, the Roxy Chicken Jam was held as a carbon neutral event. The compensation for the effects on the environment and the avoidance of CO2 and garbage were in the foreground. The produced emissions were compensated in co-operation with the Suddenrush Atlantic Rainforest Institution (SRAFRI) saving 1,500 square metres of rain forest in Brazil.

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Results Roxy Chicken Jam 2010:

1    RUKAJÄRVI    ENNI    FIN
2    MAAS    CHERYL    NED
3    OESTGAARD BUAAS    KJERSTI    NOR
4    PANCOCHOVA    SARKA    CZE
5    CANDRIAN    SINA    SUI
6    LARSEN    CECILIA    SWE
7    WIIK    LISA    NOR
8    SLADICS    CHANELLE    USA

Picture 1: Winner Enni Rukajärvi (FIN) with a Backside 540 Indy at the Roxy Chicken Jam 2010 Saalbach/Hinterglemm

Picture 2: Current leader of the TTR-Ranking Sarka Pancochova (CZE)

Picture 3: Portrait Enni Rukajärvi (FIN)

(Fotos by Christoph Schoech)

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TV footage of the contest available today from 6 pm; of the contest from Sunday, January 9th 2010, from www.roxy-press.com.
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