Over the weekend the snowy tracks of the resort of Borovets brought together the leading freestyle snowboarders from Bulgaria and Europe for the season's long-awaited event, Red Bull Fragments.

A perfectly prepared track with a classical stairs setup and a high-speed section challenged 51 masters of snowboarding from Bulgaria, Slovenia, Austria, Germany and Croatia. The panel of judges included the legends of snowboarding Slovenes Iztok Sumatic and Marko Grilc-Grilo and Bulgarian Ivan Ivanov. Twenty snowboarders qualified for the finals. Their performances were judged according to the degree of complexity and technique, overall presentation, diversity and creativity.

The open format of the event allowed the participants to demonstrate their full potential as they were free to choose the number and complexity of their lines - when, how many and what tricks to perform within a time limit.

The Red Bull Fragments Grand Prix, an exciting trip to Nesselwang, Germany, and participation in the Red Bull The Station project went to Austrian Marvine Schalmina. His fellow countryman David Struber ranked second and Matic Zavodnik of Slovenia came third. Bulgarian Dimitar Chokoev received a prize for the most creative line. After the race he said: “The park is just great! This is the first time to see such a good racing park for a snowboarding event in Bulgaria. It could be even one of the best parks built across Europe. We are all very happy: what a nice surprise!”

JudgeMarko Grilcwas also impressed by the performance and skills of 13-year-old Borislav Stoyanov. The teenager's prize includes participation in the Grilosodesshow, quite popular among freestyle snowboarders and organized by Marko Grilc - as its name suggests. So, the young guy shall have to travel to Slovenia in March for a shooting session for the show.  

English Daniela Konstantinova