Kreischberg, Austria (Friday, January 17, 2003) - Thousands were on hand Friday to see ’02 Junior World Halfpipe Champion Steven Fisher (St. Louis Park, MN) step into the big leagues with third on a floodlit halfpipe with the first U.S. medal at the FIS World Championships. With a score of 43.3 points, Fisher was just two points shy of Switzerland’s Markus Keller, who topped the field with 45.3 points and a mere .3 points behind second place finisher Stephan Karlsson of Sweden.

“I used a pretty stock run, but my strait airs were just huge,” said 20-year-old Fisher. “Then towards the bottom of the pipe, I threw a backside five followed by a frontside nine and planned to finish with a crippler, but ran out of room – it wasn’t that the pipe was small, I think my strait airs were just too big. It’s so amazing to go from being the Junior World Champion a year ago to hitting the podium today in the main event, I really can’t explain how awesome this feels.”

Even though Fisher landed his crippler, it was not scored. In FIS competitions, a line at the base of the halfpipe marks the end of the run and tricks are not scored after the rider passes that line.

“Had his last trick been scored, I have no doubt that he would have won the event,” said U.S. Snowboard Program Manager Becky Woolley. “Fisher was ruling it and it’s great to have the U.S. added to the medal count, it was a tough week for the alpine team almost hitting the podium each race – today is huge for our team.”

After just missing the podium last Saturday to Rob Kingwill (Jackson Hole, WY) at the Breckenridge stop of the Chevy Truck U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix with fourth and then leaving Sunday for worlds, Fisher was happy just to be able to put a run together with such little training time on the world’s pipe.

“I’m really pumped to hit the podium,” said Fisher. “It was tough getting knocked off in Breck, but Kingwill was riding great and you’ve got to be happy for your teammates.

We took off last Sunday for Austria, just after the Grand Prix and only had a couple of days to train on the halfpipe. This pipe wasn’t as big as we are used to – all the guys are saying that we felt spoiled from riding the Grand Prix pipes, but it got better as the week went on and today it was pretty solid.”

Boardercross expert Seth Wescott (Kingfield, ME), 26, had only rode a handful of days in the halfpipe all season before heading to Austria, making the final and then finishing tenth.

“Seth was so fired up on his result today that he didn’t even train for boardercross,” said Woolley. “But he has all day Saturday to get ready for the event. It was so great to see him going huge – his style is so smooth and he’s been riding so long that it’s awesome to see him up there with the young guys.”

Coming off three podium finishes in three national events; Kingwill was as hot as it gets moving into the worlds. But a nagging leg injury finally caught up to him in Kreischberg and “Kinger” finished 37th after passing up his normal stock run of towering ‘Sato’ flips and smooth spins for a more conservative run of strait airs. Following the event, team athletic trainer Kyle Wilkens confirmed that Kingwill had suffered a contusion in his lower left leg.

For ’02 Olympian Tommy Czeschin (Mammoth Lakes, CA), worlds didn’t fair the way he would have liked finishing 18th. Known for his smooth spins, Czeschin’s packed run of technical rotations may have been a bit too much for the international judges, who classically look for big smooth airs.

The FIS Snowboard World Championships continue Saturday with men’s and women’s Big Air followed by Boardercross on Sunday.

FIS SNOWBOARD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Kreischberg, AUT – Jan. 17
Men’s Halfpipe
1. Markus Keller, Switzerland, 45.3
2. Stefan Karlsson, Sweden, 43.6
3. Steven Fisher, St. Louis Park, MN, 43.3
4. Antti Autti, Finland, 40.7
5. Giacomo Kratter, Italy, 39.9
6. Brett Carpenter, Canada, 38.0
7. Risto Mattila, Finland, 37.6
8. Miikka Hast, Finland, 35.6
9. Jan Michaelis, Germany, 33.2
10. Seth Wescott, Kingfield, ME, 30.0
-
18. Tommy Czeschin, Mammoth Lakes, CA, 33.4
37. Rob Kingwill, Jackson Hole, WY, 21.0