A fiendishly good show ...

… was delivered on May 22 by 27 of the world’s best freerunners from 12 different countries at Red Bull Art of Motion in Vienna, Austria. Paul ‘Blue Devil’ Joseph emerged victorious. In front of 2,500 enthusiastic spectators the Brit landed first place ahead of compatriot Tim Shieff and Marcus Gustafsson of Sweden.

To be as creative as possible and as individual as you can imagine – the freerunners' maxime was on the agenda at the Red Bull Art of Motion on May 22 in Vienna, Austria. The charitable weather god enabled experts from the international freerunning scene to pull out all the stops. The spectators held their breath again and again, paying tribute to the respective one-minute shows with thunderous applause when 27 of the world’s best freerunners from 12 nations transformed a former slaughterhouse into their personal arena.

Paul Joseph, the ‘blue devil’ from Birmingham performed the most spectacular and breathtaking show full of flips, twists and individual freestyle moves, which was impossible to beat. Not only rewarded by winning the Red Bull Art of Motion, he also received the wildcard for the Barclaycard World Freerun Championships 2009 in London. ‘Tonight anyone could’ve have won; this was freerunning at its highest level. I performed two successful runs and I’m totally happy to have won!’ Countrymen Tim Shieff came second and Sweden’s Marcus Gustafsson – as at the event’s premiere two years ago – came third. The evening's best trick – a double side flip – was performed by Bulgarian Delian Dimitrov – who was honoured by the judges.

At the beginning, 15 meters above the ground, the freerunners didn't have to think twice about whether to go for it or not. They jumped skilfully head first into the slope and showed off plateaus of various heights and sizes, rails, car and parking bench with acrobatic skills, including some errors. Using their expert knowledge, four judges, headed by Ryan Doyle (GBR), winner of 2007’s edition, assessed the performances based on creativity, style, flow, execution and technical difficulty.