Press release -
Successful premiere for the HEAD Freeride Team in Andorra
Two golds and a bronze for the HEAD athletes when Freeride World Tour kicked off its 2021 season in Andorra.
Two of the originally planned stops, Japan and Canada, had to be cut out due to COVID but when everything finally started, it went off with a bang. Two separate “stops” on the same face in Ordino Arcalis, Andorra, ended with both highs and lows for the HEAD riders.
Hedvig Wessel started off hot on Friday with a massive backflip early in her run and skied the rest of the venue like a Valkyrie to wrap up the women’s ski Freeride World Tour event title. In her second run on Wednesday, she got caught up and took a scary tumble down one of the steepest parts but luckily manage to hit the brakes before reaching the rocks below. Hedvig is now tied with Elisabeth Gerritzen as runner up in the total standings.
The second gold of the first stop went to Cody Bramwell who was going all-in with a high paced, creative run and was rewarded the top spot on the men’s snowboard podium. Unfortunately, Cody wasn’t able to keep on his feet during the second stop, finishing 8th.
In the men’s ski category Blake Marshall had a rough start, arriving to Ordino Arcalis without skis or clothes, but manage to claim the last podium spot on Friday with borrowed gear. In his second outing, still without his own equipment, the kiwi made a solid run that awarded him an 10th place, resulting in a 6th place in the overall standings.
In the super tight men’s field, just 1.67 point behind Blake, Carl Regner snatched a fifth place with a trick-packed run in his first tour appearance of the year. His second run on Wednesday was equally stacked with freestyle moves, including a crowd-pleasing front flip, but judges were not as impressed, sending him back to 9th place. Carl now holds the 7th in the total before the next stop in Fieberbrunn, Austria.
American rookie Ray McDermott made a solid debut on the tour. A strong and creative run on Friday earned him a 14th place, which he followed up with a 16th place on Wednesday and some points in the bag for the coming stops.
Tao Kreibich was struggling with the tricky snow conditions and wasn’t able to land a clean run, ending up at 16th place on Friday. But the young Austrian made a strong comeback directly on Wednesday, landing a close to perfect run that earned him the 5th best score of the day and an 11th place in the total.
In the snowboard women category, Andorra local and HEAD rider Núria Castan also put down strong runs in both event landing a 5th on Friday and a 6th on Wednesday resulting in an overall 5th place.
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HEAD is a leading global manufacturer and marketer of premium sports equipment and apparel.
Our business is organized into five divisions: Winter Sports, Racquet Sports, Diving, Sportswear and Licensing. We sell products under the HEAD (alpine skis, ski bindings, ski boots, snowboard and protection products, tennis, racquetball, paddle, squash and pickleball racquets, tennis balls and tennis footwear, sportswear and swimming products), Penn (tennis balls and racquetball balls), Tyrolia (ski bindings) and Mares, SSI and rEvo (diving) brands. The Company´s key products have attained leading market positions based on sales and reputation and have gained high visibility through their use by many of today´s top athletes.
