The action was hot in one of the season’s last events on the Swatch TTR Tour – the 4Star Grandvalira Total Fight Masters of Freestyle.
VILLE UOTILA TAKES SECOND CONSECUTIVE WIN AT TOTAL FIGHT
Grandvalira, Andorra – March 28th, 2009: The action was hot in one of the season’s last events on the Swatch TTR Tour – the 4Star Grandvalira Total Fight Masters of Freestyle. An impressive international line up ventured to Grandvalira in the Pyrenees to fight it out in this renowned Slopestyle event. Despite disruptive weather on the competition day, the riders still put on a great show. Ville Uotila (FIN) came through in the finals and took out his second consecutive Total Fight Title, moving him up to World No.23 and earning him 6000 Euros. Second place went to Norwegian rookie Pål Sörensen, and Gerome Matthieu (FRA) finished third.
The format for the finals was a brutal head to head match up or “Total Fight”. Riders had to battle against each other, mano a mano, with the top qualifier taking on the last qualifier etc. The riders and event organizers decided to finish the finals early due to heavy snowfall which was slowing the course down and this meant that the winners were decided based on their riding in the second rounds.
Ville paved his way to victory in the first round against Belgian rider Seppe Smits with a switch BS 900, FS 540 and a huge switch BS 700. Smits answered back with a cab 540, FS tail grab and a BS 180. Despite having a stomach infection Smits put in an amazing effort and moved up to World No.39. In the second round Ville came up against his fellow countryman, Janne Lipsanen (FIN) who busted out a sweet BS 540 but bailed on his second jump trying a BS 900. Ville’s response to this was a huge switch BS 900, FS 540 and a gigantic switch BS 180, earning him top scores and sealing his second Total Fight victory.
“Seppe was sick so I got through the first round pretty easy. I had nothing to lose so I just went for it on my next run and it went pretty well. It’s pretty cool to get so many TTR points as it should bump me up in the rankings, I’m thinking now that maybe I should have gone to the US Open and I might have had a chance to beat my last year 13th position”, said the stoked Finn.
Second place went to 21years old Pål Sörensen (NOR) whose run in the second round included a sweet Cab 900 and FS 540 which moved him up to World No.52. His result today, combined with his 4Star Arctic Open win and 7th place at the 6Star Oakley Arctic Challenge suggest he has made a strong recovery. “It was a bit scary with the wind and the snow as you could not know your speed but the park was cool. I hadn’t imagined that they would have such a good park here in Andorra”, he said about today’s contest.
The Swatch TTR Tour is slowly winding down but there is still plenty of action to come. This weekend the 3Star Showdown Over The City is going down in Vancouver, Canada and the women are fighting for the Title at the 6Star Roxy Chicken Jam in Mammoth, California, USA. Log onto to www.ttrworldtour.com for fresh news, updates and videos from all the weekend’s events.
