Munich Inline Recap - Day 1
 
By Chris Mitchell
Saturday May 18, 2005

Olympiapark München - Our first day in Munich, and things were already getting out of control. Bruno Lowe spent the night before the competition drinking himself into a stupor; nobody could find Chris Haffey and JC Rowe , who were allegedly eurailing in to Germany for the comp; and Yuki Yasutoko, the omnipresent chaperone for the The Flying Yasutoko brothers, decided to send his boys to the continent alone. There was no telling what might happen.

Twenty rollerbladers hit the park course at 9 am . . . well, that was the original plan. As it actually happened, a few die-hard locals hit the course. The pros didn't start skating until well after 10, half an hour before the comp was scheduled to start. As it turned out, however, that didn't hurt their chances. Beni Harmanus , local hero, could push no higher than 18th place. Bruno Lowe pulled the best trick of the comp - an illusion 360 transfer from quarter to distant quarter - but couldn't get the rest of his run under control, and finished in 12th. Stephane Alfano , who looked like he hadn't skated in a few months, finished in 11th.

As for the other Europeans, Dominik Wagner of Bremen, Germany looked like he was born on the course. Steven Aleil of Othis France stuck a 360 to disaster backside on the ten foot, and sailed around the other obstacles with smooth power. Mike was surprised to learn that he finished 6th, but his tricks were just too damn good for him to miss the top ten. JC Rowe found one of the strongest lines on the course, which looked like it was built for Sven with its tight transitions and technical angles.

Brian Shima bombed around the course like he had been towed into it. Chris Haffey pulled a series of solid tricks, like a soul to topside soul transfer. And the Prince, Brian Aragon took the qualifier with a perfect 900 and a perfect truespin topside acid down the rail.

On vert, the skaters kept it casual. Local, Patrick Zimmermann threw a 900. Borja did it fakie. Fabiola stuck a fakie 900 as well, but didn't reveal her forward 900. Sven Boekhorst did a casual double flat spin and a nice zero spin topside soul, but produced none of his regular guns, and so finished in third. Marc Englehart did a solid run complete with 1080 and some very progressive liptricks to finish in second. And Takeshi who only knows one speed (fast forward), stuck a Viking Flip, a double flat spin and his usual array of impossible liptricks to qualify in first.

But the real excitement happens tomorrow during the finals!