The New Year 2009 gets going well. But it’s not only the 8th FIS Snowboard World Championships presented by LG being hosted in Sungwoo, Gangwon Province, from January 17th to 24th. It’s also because of the five contests in four different disciplines of the 2009 LG Snowboard FIS World Cup hosted by three different resorts. Besides the battle for World Cup points in the race for the Crystal Globes in all disciplines, those competitions are the very last chance for some of the athletes to gain one of the limited national spots in order to represent their countries at the 2009 WCS in Korea.

The alpine race boarders are the prelude to an eventful January. Three years after the last World Cup competition took place at Kreischberg, the world’s elite is coming back to meet at the 2003 World Championships hill. In the Styrian resort, two parallel races will be staged.

On January 6th, it’s time to floor it in the Parallel Giant Slalom. The Parallel Slalom on 7th make the athlete’s hearts leap for joy as the finals will be organised as night finals.

Such a night final will be held also in Bad Gastein. Like its Styrian pendant, the winter sport resort in the Salzburg country side hosts two contests. On January 10th and 11th, 2009, the Snowboard Cross races three and four of the current season are next up on the agenda. The first of them will take place on the Bucheben slope under 100,000 Watt flood lights.

Just before the 2009 WCS in Korea, the freestylers are coming back to Japan. After the Gujo debut in 2008, the season’s third Halfpipe contest will take place on January 14th.

Outstanding line-ups