Guillaume Chastagnol FRA, 12th	Ross Powers USA, 4th

Keir Dillon USA, 8th	Adam Petraska USA, 5th

Right on time at 8:30, the area around the halfpipe was crowded. Approximately 4,000 spectators have assembled to see the world's best freestylers competing for a total prize money of US$ 50,000. The field of the top 8 women and 16 men was spiced up with famous names like Fabien Rohrer, Olympic Champion Gian Simmen (both SUI), European Champion Daniel Franck (NOR) whereas other famous names like Olympic Champion Nicola Thost, Xaver Hoffmann (both GER), Mike Michalchuk, Natasza Zurek (both CAN) were missing. Some of the favorites couldn't cope with the pressure as happened to Iker Fernandez who ended up 15th at the end, whereas those hard-core guys just rode like hell! Stefan "Steve" Gruber was one of those - he went insane with huge airs and phat rotations. Sick Back to Back 720°-ies - a "Steve-Gruber-invention" of some years ago - were certainly one reason for his high scores. Steve nearly missed his second run because he was busy giving interviews in the finishing area, so the referees were already looking for him. After the first two runs out of three, Steve was even leading ahead of Ross Powers (USA) with only 1 point advantage and Daniel Franck (NOR). Ross, 3rd after the qualification, failed in his last run and fell back on 4 in the final rankings, so it could only be the Austrian Steve Gruber or the Norwegian Daniel Franck. Daniel could finally push it through, but the differences in the scores were minimal. In the women's it was Martina Tscharner of Switzerland who succeeded with constant runs ahead of Tricia Byrnes of USA who steadily attacked the leader. Austrian Nici Pederzolli risked everything but had to content with 6th place only. At the prize giving ceremony both Daniel and Steve threw their gear into the roaring crowd. Shit happens - besides some small yet essential utensils, Steve even left his car keys in his pockets! So he had to chase his jacket which has already found a new owner at that time. Well, neither Steve nor Martina could realize what they've achieved - at the party late in the night they were still talking about what the gold and the bronze medal respectively mean to them! Hopefully Steve's mother now understands the meaning of a World Championships' title...