Snowboard World Cup Big Air Sofia 2007

article and photos by Georgi Georgiev

On 21st and 22nd December 2007 Sofia hosted the biggest event in the world of Snowboard, the Snowboard World Cup Big Air. For the first time the capital of Bulgaria hosted such a majour event and the organization was perfectly handled from the beginning until the very end of the competition.

The event took place on “Alexander Batemberg” square. A special ramp was brought from Switzerland, and it took 5 days to be assembled. The unique equipment is 31 m high, 25 m wide and 100 m long.

The grand show started in 21st in the evening with demonstrations with Big Air Bag – huge inflatable pillow, which was used by skiers and snowboarders for landing after their performance. This was a unique chance for all Bulgarian winter extreme addicts to try their abilities.

On the next day the cold weather and the foggy weather couldn’t stop the audience to gather on the emblematic square and witness the performances of the best 65 snowboarders in the world. Trnainings and qualifications took place all day long, and in the end at 7.30 PM, the audience on the square and in front of the TV screens witnessed the 4 final jumps. 10 minutes later the mayor Mr. Boyko Borisov, the president of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee, Stefka Kostadinova and the head of the National Youth & Sport Agency – Mrs. Vesela Lecheva, prized the winners in the round of the Snowboard World Cup, Big Air Sofia 2007.

The cup was well-deserved by the Austrian Stefan Gimpl. The second place was taken by Janne Kopri, who is also considered as a leader in the discipline. Matevz Petek from Slovenia took the third place. According to Stefan Gimpl the competition was perfectly organized and he presented his special thanks to Sofia for the exciting experience.



The best Bulgarian snowboarder Mr. Mario Benio, who is also a trainer of the National Snowboard Team of Bulgaria, took the 19th place, and the rest of the Bulgarian participants lined up after the 40th place. However this was a great success for the Bulgarian competitors, who performed for the first time on an equipment of such dimensions. The biggest success was for Sofia, which had the honor to host this incredible world rank event.