Photos: Sharon Le Grange
Kogelburg, South Africa: Day 2 was welcomed with damp tar and gloomy clouds with a threat of rain. After a few drops came down, the sun was out to dry up the hill and the clouds decided to part for qualifying day. The stoke was pretty high as riders fine tuned their strategies from knowledge gained at practice runs the previous day.
Practice runs got underway around 10am and before the riders even knew it, it was time to qualify. Proceedings ran smoothly as almost all the riders clocked their 2 timed runs.
Photo: Sharon Le Grange
The international riders showcased their skills with incredibly fast qualifying times, Jackson Shapiera from Australia had the course down. When it was time for the open skateboard division the wind had change in the late afternoon to a steady tailwind. This definitely added extra speed on the top half of the course and Jackson smashed the course record for skateboard by 11 seconds. Anton Pratt and Raoul van den Berg topped the list as the only 2 local riders in the top 10 for open downhill skateboarding.
Photo: Sharon Le Grange
Rebekka Gemperle continued to show her skills taking the womens division.
Photo: Sharon Le Grange
In the junior division James Jagger took the fastest run.
Photo: Sharon Le Grange
Russell Naude had stiff competition this year from Michael Serek, with Michael taking the top spot for both classic and street luge but as you know, Russell is at his best on race day so we look forward to the exciting unpredictability that is this race.
The course was littered with spectators which made it feel like it was race day.