Peetu Piiroinen wins Billabong Air and Style Innsbruck as Seppe Smits clinches 2012 TTR Big Air Title
Finland’s snowboarding phenom Peetu Piiroinen walked away with top honours from the 6Star Billabong Air & Style Innsbruck – Tirol 2012 that went down on Saturday, February 4, at the Bergisel stadium in Innsbruck, Austria. However, Belgium’s Seppe Smits got to claim the bigger honour as he emerged as the 2012 Ticket to Ride (TTR) World Tour Big Air champion after finishing as runner-up in Saturday’s Final.
Heading towards the latest 6Star TTR event, America’s Eric Willett sat on top of the 2012 TTR World Tour Big Air Rankings, though Smits was breathing right down his neck while sitting in second place. An early exit for the American from the competition was the only way the Belgian rider could surpass him and get his hands on the coveted TTR World Tour Big Air championship title.
As the competition began, the limelight quickly shifted from the two contenders for the championship title to the 23-year-old Piiroinen as he got the better of German’s Ethan Morgan in the first round of 16-man head-to-head competition. He followed it up with another excellent win over Willett in the eight-man Round 2 battle, consequently paving the path for Smits to capitalise on the opportunity and get coveted TTR points by securing a decent position.
The four-man Super Final on Saturday saw Piiroinen squaring off with Smits, Swedish Niklas Mattsson and Canada’s Sebastien Toutant in a battle for the highest spot on the podium. All four riders were in an intimidating form and were expected to throw down some of the most technical tricks in their arsenal to impress the judges.
While the Super Final turned out to be a thrilling affair with plenty of triple cork attempts, the goofy-footer Piiroinen stole the show with his first run, scoring a 91.70 off it to take an early lead. The lead held until the end to seal the fate of the battle in his favour and earned him the highest spot on the podium along with the biggest slice of the $100,000 prize money.
The 20-year-old Smits had all the reason to push himself to the limit during Saturday’s Final and consequently pulled off a Cab 1260 mute grab to score a 91.13 for it. The effort put him in runner-up place, earning him the much-needed 850 TTR Ranking points to take his over-all points to 874.10. As a result, he surpassed Willett on the TTR World Tour Big Air Rankings to claim the TTR World Tour Big Air championship title.
“That was such a nice surprise up there on that stage,” Smits said. “It's just a magical moment, a magical moment. It's so nice … It was an awesome contest and a great prize. So sick.”
Mattsson rounded out the Billabong Air & Style Innsbruck – Tirol 2012 podium after throwing a front-side double cork 1080 in his second run to earn 89.53 points off it. Toutant missed out on the podium after earning an 89.07 for a front-side double cork 1080 mute grab. He went on to attempt a much-anticipated triple cork in his third run, though to no avail.
It turned out to be an exciting weekend in Innsbruck as the best riders from around the world converged to take each other on in a battle of skills, style and innovation. With the fate of the TTR World Tour Big Air Championship getting decided, the entire focus would not shift to the slopestyle and half-pipe competitions.
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