Ville Uotila clinches fourth consecutive win at the 4Star Grandvalira Total Fight 2011
The eight edition of the 4Star Grandvalira Total Fight wrapped up with the Slopestyle final on Saturday, 26 March, at the El Tarter terrain park in Grandvalira, Andorra.
The contest displayed some exceptional snowboard action as the riders competed against each other to take home the major portion of the $25,000 prize purse as well as 500 Swatch Ticket to Ride (TTR) Ranking points on offer.
After an intense contest, it was Finland’s Ville Uotila who occupied the highest spot on the podium for the fourth consecutive time in a row. The rest of the podium belonged to Finland as well as Valtteri Paunonen and Nuutti Niemela finished in second and
third place respectively.
A solid crew of international and local riders made their way to the El Tarter terrain park to compete in the Slopestyle contest. The spring-time conditions were not the most ideal for the contest, making the course challenging because of the speed of the
snow. However, the park was in perfect shape and featured the x-shaped kickers and transfer which kept the riding exciting.
The open qualification round took place on Friday where around 80 riders took a shot at the 16 available spots in the final. Each rider had two chances to come up with their most impressive runs. Once the qualification round narrowed down the competition
line-up to 16, the event moved on to the knock-out finals on Saturday. The knock-out stage further narrowed down the line-up to the last four, who were then moved into the three-run super final.
The defending Champion, Uotila was aware of the fact that there was no room for error at such a crucial stage of the contest. He also understood that something spectacular was needed to seal the fate of the contest. Determined to retain his title, he landed
a sensational run to accomplish the feat of clinching his fourth consecutive win at the Total Fight. Uotila's winning run included a switch backside 900, backside 540 followed by a switch frontside 900 mute grab.
In a short post-contest conversation with a journalist, Uotila said, “I love this event because its the last of the season and the weather is always amazing, I love the spring conditions, and the park is always amazing. I always come back because I love
the mellow atmosphere.”
The latest win has moved Uotila to Swatch TTR World No. 53 spot.
The 20-year-old Paunonen moved up to 357th place in the Swatch TTR World Ranking after a second-place finish in the contest. Niemela’s third-place finish lifted him up to World No.45.
With the Total Fight wrapping up, the riders will get their next opportunity to earn some cash and Swatch TTR points at the 4Star USASA Nationals, with Halfpipe and Slopestyle formats that will be held from April 2 to 12, 2011 at Copper Mountain, USA.
Tags: