The 20th-anniversary event of the annual Simple Session contest went down this weekend, February 8 – 9 at the Saku Arena in Tallinn, Estonia.
The main contests hosted 159 athletes from 30 countries: 58 in Pro Skateboarding, 13 in Women’s BMX, 51 in Pro BMX Street and 37 in BMX Park. The Qualifications went down on Saturday and Finals on Sunday, with 12 top Qualifiers competing for the medals.
For the first time since 2013, women’s BMX class called Sister Session was brought back. There were 13 competitors from all over the world, a couple of them will be representing their countries at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, where BMX Freestyle will make its debut. The Swiss-American Nikita Ducarroz (Mongoose) took home the win. The Japanese Olympic hope Minato Oike (Vis-à-vis) took second and the winner of the Youth Olympic Games, German Lara Lessman (fresh addition to the Red Bull team) took the third place.
In skateboarding, the Spaniard Danny Leon (Red Bull) took home the gold, American Ke ‘Chaud Johnson (Etnies) the silver, and German Tyler Edtmayer (Bones Wheels) the bronze. Ke’Chaud also won the Visit Estonia “Epic Estonia Trip” best trick prize for pulling off a huge Frontside Flip over the big gap.
“Danny flew around the course with great speed and a variety of tricks,” said skateboarding MC Dave Duncan about the winner’s final runs “He was hitting the rails and taking risks flipping his board. On his final run, he blasted a full speed kickflip to stalefish grab over the big quarter pipe gap.” In his opinion, Mr. Leon finishing with one of the best tricks of the event was like putting the icing on a very tasty cake.
| In BMX Street, last year’s gold medalist Felix Prangenberg GER (Kunstform) finished with the highest score, first place qualifier Broc Raiford USA (Red bull) was second, and Alex Donnachie GBR (BSD Forever) was third.
The Japanese prodigy Rim Nakamura JPN (Red Bull) celebrated his 18th birthday with an absolute bang, winning the BMX Park contest. The second place went to the current world champion Brandon Loupos AUS (Rockstar). Last year’s winner Boyd Hilder AUS (Federal Bikes) came third and also got the 10th place in BMX Street. “Nikita had great style, well-executed tricks like no-handers and some of the more difficult ones such as the 540 air,” commented BMX judge David Cleworth. He went on to explain that both Prangenberg and Nakamura showed great use of the course, originality and did cleaner runs compared to the other contestants and therefore, deserved to win. Judging the BMX competitions were David “Hank” Cleworth GBR (head judge), Markus Wilke GER, Antti Huotari FIN, Toms Silins LVA, and Achim Kujawski GER. The skateboarding competitions were judged by Dan Cates GBR (head judge), Pat Duffy USA, Vesa Ikola FIN, Kirill Korobkov RUS and Pärtel Niitaru EST.
Simple Session Finals were broadcast LIVE in partnership with Red Bull TV with hosts Ed Leigh and expert commentators Vanessa Torres (skateboarding) and Sebastian Keep (BMX). WATCH SIMPLE SESSION 20 REPLAYS:
ON YOUTUBE
ON RED BULL TV
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PRESS PHOTOS from the training days, parties, side events, qualifications,
finals and award ceremonies are available on our FLICKR
Simple Session 21 will take place on FEB 6-7th 2021
in Tallinn, Estonia @ Saku Suurhall