Peetu Piiroinen wins Snowboarding Big Air World Cup

Double victory for Finnish snowboarders in Moscow

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Finland's small but highly effective snowboarding team delivered a swift precision strike at the Snowboarding Big Air World Cup event organised in Moscow over the weekend.
      Peetu Piiroinen and Jaakko Ruha, who arrived in Moscow on an overnight train, settled for nothing less than snatching a double victory before catching the next train back to Finland.
      The trip to Russia was particularly fruitful for Piiroinen. Not only did the 18-year-old cap the Moscow event, but he landed the entire Big Air World Cup title in the process. Ruha, in turn, came in third in the World Cup, thanks to his success in the concluding event.
     
"I feel great. The last event of the season, and I produced a victory in it. I did not want to play it safe, though even a weaker result would have guaranteed me the World Cup title", Piiroinen commented over the phone.
      Of the strong Finnish snowboarding squad, Antti Autti, Risto Mattila, and Janne Korpi, to name but three, all decided to skip the Moscow event.
      The third place in Moscow went to Matevz Petek of Slovenia, who also secured the second place in this year's World Cup. Piiroinen's superiority was crushing, for during the season he ran up no fewer than 3,300 points against Petek's 2,200 points.
     
This winter the Finnish youngster has produced a tour de force entry into the world snowboarding elite. Piiroinen capped his first Big Air and Halfpipe World Cup victories earlier on in the season.
      Currently Piiroinen is also in the lead in the Halfpipe World Cup, but among the obstacles to a possible double championship is his upper secondary matriculation examination.
      "I will have to skip at least the Japanese and South Korean World Cup events", Piiroinen explained.
      In recent years the Finnish snowboarders have excelled in the Big Air events in particular. In this year's Big Air World Championships, five Finns made it to the top six. Piiroinen was sixth.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  World Championship silver for speed skater Koskela and snowboarder Autti (22.1.2007)

Links:
  FIS-Ski results

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