Extreme winter sports event, Red Bull Crashed Ice, makes its way to Japanese shores for the first time

Red Bull Crashed Ice, one of the most extreme winter sports events, finally makes its way to Japan. Ice cross downhill, an on-ice extreme downhill race, pits four riders against each other to race down and up a 600-meter long track. This December marks the first time the event will be coming to Japan since it began in 2001, and it will be held in Yokohama.

The Yokohama event will be the first venue of this season, and in order to decide upon representatives for the Japanese team, a number of demo sessions are being held in the months leading up to the start of the season. Participants who attend at least two of these sessions are then invited to the screening event on the 10th and 11th of November in Kansai. Then, those selected at the screening will have the privilege of participating in this year’s Red Bull Crashed Ice season.

The demo session at Meiji Jingu Gaien Ice Skating Rink, headed by Chris Papillon, the sport director for Red Bull Crashed Ice, was a generally laid back affair, designed to give those interested a taste of the skills required for the real event. After a number of warm-ups, cones and A-boards were placed on the rink and participants had to successfully swerve around and jump over them. The difficulty was slowly increased until the participants were racing each other around a makeshift obstacle course, involving a number of jumps, sharp turns and even face-down slides. Participants were given a well deserved Red Bull after the session and commemorative photograph was taken.

Red Bull Crashed Ice will be held in December at Rinko Park in Yokohama, with the preliminaries being held from 5:15 p.m. on the 7th and the finals from 6 p.m. on the 8th. With a capacity of 18 to 20,000 people per day, and 96 athletes coming from all across the world to compete, it’s sure to be a huge event and the perfect way to close off the year.

For tickets, click here.

• External Link
• https://www.redbull.com/jp-ja/events/crashed-ice-yokohama

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