On January 17, the preliminary rounds of the 13th Red Bull Nanshan Open concluded. After two rounds of competition, fifteen snowboarders advanced to the finals. American snowboarder Sean Ryan, competing in the Red Bull Nanshan Open for the fourth time, ranked first in the preliminaries with a score of 93.67, thanks to two 900-degree aerial spins and a series of high-difficulty rail tricks. Norwegian snowboarder Mons Roisland and Swiss snowboarder Michael Schaerer took second and third places respectively, while Chinese snowboarder He Wei secured a spot in the finals with a 16th-place finish.
Additionally, at the end of the course, the organizers set up a fun segment where a child guarded the goal, and snowboarders, after completing their runs, opted to take a “penalty kick” to challenge their “kicking power” in snowboard goal shooting. Facing the child, most snowboarders missed the shot, but only three—Norwegian Mons, Finnish Aleksi Partanen, and American Asher Humphreys—succeeded. He joked that he was feeling very lucky.
Tomorrow morning, the Red Bull Nanshan Open will hold the Round of 16 finals, with the top six snowboarders advancing to the afternoon Super Final.