The highlight of Day One at Newtons Nation was the return of Kevin Reimer. A previous winner in 2009 and 2010, he missed 2012 due to injury, however he has picked up where he left off with a flawless qualifying run to post a new course record and number 1 qualifier.
Picture: Local police checking speeds with their radar
Top Ten qualifiers Open Skateboard
Kevin Reimer 60.049 (Canada)
Alex Tongue 60.432 (USA)
Andrew Haiby 60.448 (USA)
Dillon Stephens 60.588 (Canada)
Kyle Wester 60.651 (USA)
Douglas Silva 60.698 (Brazil)
Louis Pilloni 60.702 (California)
James Kelly 60.788 (California)
Kyle Martin 60.999 (Canada)
Micah Green 61.672 (USA)
Each year the skill and speed increases. It was only two years ago we were all amazed with Jackson Shapiera's no footbrake run and railing of Forest Elbow. Today competitor after competitor attacked the mountain in a similar way. AJ Haiby's run was inspirational and definitely the most talked about. He tucked the whole mountain, briefly breaking tuck for a few speed checks on Forest Elbow. With the times so close, when racing starts tomorrow, it will be tight and fast.
There were 26,000 unique viewers of today's broadcast on Youtube. For a day of non racing, that was an excellent result. Tomorrow we start racing which will place the final 64 for Sunday's finals.
Women's Downhill Qualifying Skateboard
Marisa Nunez (Peru) 67.926
Magaly McWhinnie (Australia) 72.854
Tash Graham (Australia) 73.227
Gemma Holland (Australia) 99.411
Top Ten Street Luge qualifiers
Graham Brittain 62.323
Abdil Mahdzan 62.684
Julian Slaney 62.745
Cédric Robert 62.967
Mark Anderson 63.074
Ziggy King 63.752
Brendan Burke 63.788
Lance Evans 64.266
Nic McKirdy 64.803
Bill Salmon 65.339
Top Ten Classic Luge qualifiers
Abdil Mahdzan 64.086
Cédric Robert 64.702
Graham Brittain 65.092
Michael English 66.291
Nic McKirdy 66.745
Ziggy King 66.855
Adam Yates 67.357
Blake Jenkins 68.100
Brendan Burke 68.172
Adam Sparks 70.590
The two stand out lugers today were Graham Brittain and Abdil Mahdzan. Abdil came within a fraction of a second to taking out top qualifier for both street and classic. Graham pipped him in the Street Luge and Abdil had to settle for 1. in Classic Luge only.
Competition is fierce this year in the luge, and it will only get better when racing begins.
Don't miss a minute of the action, we are broadcasting live all day tomorrow and Sunday on Youtube.
