Peetu Piiroinen confirmed as 2010-11 Swatch TTR World Snowboarding Tour Champion
Although the climax of the current Swatch Ticket to Ride World Snowboarding Tour is yet to come, the winner of this season’s men’s Championship title has been confirmed after the result of the recently concluded Oakley Arctic Challenge.
Peetu Piiroinen, the 23-year-old from Finland, is the man standing tall this season. He has also had the honour of lifting the trophy for the last two years. Piiroinen has once again shown his superiority in all three formats of the sport; slopestyle, big
air and halfpipe.
The sensational rider is currently enjoying a comfortable lead in the Swatch TTR Tour Ranking with 936.98 points. There are not enough events left in the current season to allow anyone to amass enough points to surpass Piiroinen. The rider sitting in second
spot in the rankings is Belgium’s Seppe Smits, who has 861.17 points. Even if he finishes first in the last 6Star event of the season, his average will fail to surpass Piiroinen’s. Meanwhile, Canadian riders Sebastien Toutant and Mark McMorris are sitting
in third and fourth place respectively.
Piiroinen did not get off to the best of starts in the 2010-11 Swatch Tour. His shaky performances were in stark contrast to those from last year. He failed to make a solid impact in any of the events and it almost seemed that Piiroinen had lost his touch.
By mid-November, Piiroinen had fallen to number 49 in the rankings, and continued to slide further. Nothing seemed to be going his way and the title looked out of his reach.
Then the tide turned for the defending champion. During the first week of December 2010, Piiroinen upped his game and started exhibiting signs of getting back to form after a fifth place finish in the Air & Style Beijing event in 2010. After that there was
no turning back for him. He continued his revival in 2011 and finished fourth in the halfpipe event at O’Neill Evolution at the start of January.
During the Burton European Open a week later, Piiroinen finally broke free of the shackles, and put in a brilliant performance to clinch victory in the Halfpipe contest. He also finished second in the Slopestyle format, which improved his Swatch TTR Ranking
drastically.
In his next event, Piiroinen finished in second place behind Canada’s Mark McMorris in the Billabong Air and Style competition in early February. The second place finish however, earned him enough points to put him on top of the Swatch TTR Rankings.
Nike 6.0 Air & Style became the event where Piiroinen strengthened his chances for this year’s Championship title. His big air skills helped him prevail in the competition and earn 1000 TTR points to extend his lead at the top.
The result of the Oakley Arctic Challenge confirmed that Piiroinen’s lead was unassailable. Smits was the biggest potential threat to his top position, but failing to finish in the top three deprived him of the much-needed points.
The Championship trophy will be presented to Piiroinen at the conclusion of the 6Star Burton US Open, scheduled to be held from 7-13 March. He will be making history by lifting his third consecutive Swatch TTR trophy. Indeed his versatile skills have made
him a force to be reckoned with.
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