Snowboarder Niek van der Velden, 27 days before the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, just missed the victory in a World Cup competition in the slopestyle section. He set the second score at Mammoth Mountain in California; his best result ever.
The 21-year-old Dutchman was the best of the sixteen participants in his first run with 76.56. That score remained at the top of the leaderboard for a long time in the second final run until American Redmond Gerard went over it with 82.88.
Van der Velden, who also showed top form in the qualifications with the best run (95.75). was already certain of participating in the Winter Games.
