Yuki Kadono: surprise winner of 6Star World Snowboard Tour contest, the Oakley Shaun White Air & Style Beijing 2012 with a Triple Cork 1440 / Peetu Piiroinen finishes second, Stale Sandbech third / 15,000 spectators in the Bird´s Nest Olympic Stadium

16-year old Yuki Kadono (JPN) took home the victory in the Superfinal of the Oakley Shaun White Air & Style Beijing 2012, sticking a Backside Triple Cork 1440 Mute in the last run of the contest in front of more than 15,000 spectators at the Bird´s Nest Olympic Stadium. With 97.67 he prevailed over Peetu Piiroinen (FIN/2nd/93,33 Pts.), Stale Sandbech (NOR/3rd/92.00 Pts.) and Mathias Weissenbacher (AUT/4th/34.33 Pts.) in a highly dramatic finale. With the win, Yuki takes home 1,000 World Snowboard Tour points, the Ring of Glory and a major share of the 100,000 US-Dollar prize purse. Yuki Kadono also won the Red Bull Longest Airtime Award with a “flight time” of more than 3.4 seconds.

On an extremely cold starlit night in Beijing the level of snowboarding once again hit the stars with the riders showcasing a series of double corks, backside 10s and backside 12s over the megaramp in the early rounds, and then surpassing those tricks with 1440s in the following rounds all the way to the Superfinal. Again the standard of freestyle snowboarding was pushed to new frontiers at the Air & Style.

Results Superfinal

Pos. Name Country Points Winning Trick

1 Yuki Kadono JPN 97,67 Backside Triple Cork 1440 Mute

2 Peetu Piiroinen FIN 93,33 Cab 1260 Melon

3 Stale Sandbech NOR 92,00 Backside 1440 Mute

4 Mathias Weissenbacher AUT 34,33 Backside Double Rodeo 1080 Indy

Yuki Kadono: “I am very happy about today´s win. It is a great honor to be the first Asian Air & Style winner and the first rider to win an Air &Style with a Triple Cork. I have only stuck this trick once before and am always afraid before trying this very difficult trick, so it means all the more that I landed it today.”

Shaun White: "Tonight's event was amazing, I was blown away to see the Chinese people show so much support for snowboarding. It is really inspiring. Yuki Kadono killed it tonight and he definitely deserved to win, congrats to all the riders for helping to support Oakley and Air & Style in China."

With the win Yuki Kadono improved to 9th place in the overall World Snowboard Tour ranking. Roope Tonteri (FIN) remains on top of the Big Air discipline ranking, with Yuki Kadono in 16th position.

For further information and photos: www.air-style.com