Munich, September 10th 2014 – Martin Söderström is not only one of the top riders on the FMB World Tour. He’s also got his own signature event. On September 13th “Martin Söderström Invitational” (#MSI) will return with its mix of slopestyle and a thrilling 14 meter (45 foot) road gap big air jump. View the teaser video:
This year’s edition will be one of the highlight events during “Kulturnatten”, an annual festival in Uppsala, expected to draw a magnitude of excited spectators to the streets of Söderström’s home town. “To have an event in your hometown is definitely something special; to be able to show everyone what I have been doing the past eight years around the world is pretty awesome.”
Martin is already onsite preparing the event, and using all his experience from the past to make a perfect contest happen for the riders and the huge crowd that will come out to see the show. The highlight of the contest is certainly the big air jump across the road gap. His good friend and fellow Swedish rider, Anton Thelander will be arriving soon to test the course and get it dialed for this weekend’s contest: “For me, the Martin Söderström Invitational is where it all began and I am so pumped to be a big part of it this year. I will be there to help Martin out before the event. I’m happy to sesh with all my buddies from around the world on home soil.”
Competition format
In its second edition, #MSI will be decided in a jam session format, that allows the riders to take as many runs they like in timed heats to achieve their best score possible. The qualifying is a 45 minutes jam format where the top ten riders will proceed to the semi-finals. Then another 40 minutes jam session will determine the top six and who will compete in the final jam session for the title. The live judging system is a unique option, where riders can see their score as soon as they finish their run and then be able to keep on trying to improve the run until they are happy with it.
“I am very pleased about how the contest format turned out. I often feel on other events that I have so much more to give when the two runs are done. This opens up for the riders to be able to try their hardest tricks a few times and that way progress the sport.”
Invited riders
Eric Walenta- Jakub Vencl
- Xavier Pasamonte
- Antoni Villoni (FRA)
- Diego Caverzasi
- Torquato Testa
- Matt Jones
- Peter Henke
- Tobi Wrobel
- Adrian Tell
- Szymon Godziek
- Alex Alanko
- Anton Thelander
- Dennis Kangasmaa
- Elof Lind
- Linus Sjöholm
- Max Fredriksson
- Nils Buller
Eric Walenta
Jakub Vencl
Xavier Pasamonte
Antoni Villoni (FRA)
Diego Caverzasi
Matt Jones
Peter Henke
Adrian Tell
Szymon Godziek
Alex Alanko
Live webcast
For fans that can’t make it to Uppsala, the event will be aired live on SVT Play. Fans can tune in on svtplay.se to follow the action starting at 3pm (CEST) / 6am (PST) / 9am (EST).