Peetu Piiroinen reclaims the TTR Tour lead after the Billabong Air and Style
Findland’s Peetu Piiroinen got back his Swatch TTR World Tour lead after landing at the second position in the Billabong Air and Style held at Tirol, Austria, on the 4th of February. Even though it was Canada’s Mark McMorriss who won the event,
the 22-year-old Finnish did not feel too disappointed at missing out the victory, satisfied with his 942.30 points from the 6Star event which helped him to get back at the top of the ranking table with 876.66 points.
The Billabong Air and Style, held at the Bergisel Stadium, had 16 of the world’s best snowboarders participating in it. It was Canada’s Mark McMorris who managed to best the his competitors and walk away with the victory, taking home a large part of the
75,000 Euros prize purse as well as the “Air and Style Ring of Glory”. He achieved this feat by executing a stylish Backside 1260 double cork in the super final, pushing Piiroinen to second place. The first position at the event earned Morriss 1000 points
which helped him to move up to the 7th place in the TTR Tour rankings.
Piiroinen was pretty satisfied with the second place in the event, considering it gave him enough points to reclaim his TTR World Tour lead.
“This event exceeded all my expectations, I would not have thought I could make top three as I have had a small injury with my rib. I got good TTR points today and being number one at this point is great,” the 22-year-old Finnish said. “ My toughest competitors
to watch out for are definitely Seb Toots, Iouri Podladtchikov and Mark McMorris.”
Austria’s local favourite, Werni Stock was cheered by the crowd after he landed himself at the third position thanks to his Switch Backside 1260. Stock currently stands at 13th place in the ranking, moving up a few places after earning 900 points
from the event.
This Air and Style at Tirol was a 6Star event, demanding something extra from the snowboarders to clinch the win and earn the huge points. Star is a ranking system used by TTR to denote an event’s global significance, its level of competition and the amount
of points that would be earned by the competitors. 1Star is the lowest rank for an event, whereas 6Stars is the highest.
The TTR Tour ranking is calculated by taking an average of the six best scores of the snowboarder in the season.
Piiroinen has already participated in six 6Stars events this season, currently sitting at the table with 876.66 points after his latest event which earned him 942.30 points. It has been a great season for him so far, winning Halfpipe and coming second in
the Slopestyle in Burton European Open 2011 last month. Close in pursuit is Switzerland’s Christian Haller with his score of 794.05. Another Swiss, Iouri Podladtchikov is not far behind, ranking third at the moment with a score of 783.74. Even though a number
of events are scheduled for this month and the next, Piiroinen finds himself in a very comfortable lead at the moment. However, the fate of the tour is not yet sealed.
The Finnish already has two TTR Champsionship title to his name, finding himself at the top of the rankings for the last two years consecutively. He is getting closer to his third title with the season getting closer to its end. The TTR Tour 2010-11’s season
would come to an end at the 6Star Burton US Open in March, where the new Champion would be crowned. It is very likely that that we will be watching Piiroinen wearing the crown once again and asserting his dominance in the world of freestyle snowboarding.
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