Australian Russ Henshaw won 2nd place at Red Bull Playstreets slopestyle skiing

16 YEAR-OLD AUSSIE COMES 2nD IN FREESTYLE SKIING EVENT

Only 16 years old, Australian Russ Henshaw won second place in the Red Bull Playstreets slopestyle skiing contest on the weekend in Austria. Although putting on a stellar performance, it was Oscar Scherlin from Sweden who impressed the judges with his stomped switch 9s in all his runs, and was handed the keys to a brand new car after earning his first international win.

Thousands of spectators were standing packed alongside the event area in central Bad Gastein (Salzburg, Austria) on February 16th to see the world's best ‘new-school’ skiers fight for the Red Bull Playstreets crown. Not a balcony around the area was empty.

Scherlin, who is more of a big air specialist than a slopestyle expert, made it through qualifying and beat his opponent in the quarter final in all three rounds. In the semi he was faced with Oskari Raitanen from Finland. So far into the competition Raitanen had looked like a winner, with advanced tricks and perfect landings, but Oscar was determined. Beating Raitanen with a 337 point score, he reached his dream final.

In the final he met another 16 year old Red Bull athlete, Russ Henshaw from Australia. Filled with adrenaline, Scherlin managed to pull a perfect rerun of his semi-final, and stomped tricks like a corner mute 540, mute switch 900 and safety 720. A somewhat sketchy landing off the rails at the finish made everybody gasp for air. Henshaw answered with a very clean, but a bit less difficult, repertoire including a misty flip and a great 720 jump from the rails.

In the end the victory was given to Oscar Scherlin, who was awarded with the Red Bull Playstreets crown and given the keys to a brand new Suzuki Vitara.

Check out Russ Henshaw’s performance here: http://freecaster.com/1000023_1003856