Petek Wins First World Cup Big Air of the Season

November 23rd, 2006

Stockholm, Sweden - Slovenian Matevz Petek was the winner of today’s first Big Air event of the Nokia Snowboard FIS World Cup 2006/2007 season. At the debut of Stockholm as a World Cup host in the Olympic arena Stockholm stadium, the boarder from Celje earned 26.4 points in the big final of the new knock-out-format and thus relegated Peetu Piiroinen (24.9) to the second spot.


The Finnish freestyler Piiroinen, who at 18 was the youngest snowboarder in the finals of the best 16 qualifiers, had beaten his fellow countryman Risto Mattila before. But Mattila (25.9) was able to jump on the podium after he had successfully competed against Austrian Florian Mausser (24.7) in the battle for third.

“It’s a miracle,” Petek cheered right after the final run. “In the training, I wasn’t able to land my tricks at all. But in the finals, I was doing better and better with every single jump.” Besides his fourth World Cup triumph, the 23 year-old rider celebrated a much better season opening than he had last winter. “Last year, I missed the first two finals and thus lost too many points to fight for the Big Air’s Crystal Globe.”

In the final, Piiroinen had to accept the dominance of the Slovenian athlete, but the young Finn was happy to repeat his best World Cup result to date, scored in Kreischberg, Austria in 2005. “I wanted to make it to the finals and then do my best. I’m stoked that it worked out fine!”

In who celebrated his eighth Big Air World Cup podium, Matilla complimented Piiroinen on his good performance. “Peetu is an outstanding young gun,” Matilla said. “He is riding super good and rarely doesn’t stick his tricks. One can expect a lot from him in the future. He will be big! I myself am stoked with the third rank but mainly because I landed the

Nokia FIS Snowboard World Cup 2006-07
Big Air - Stockholm, Sweden
Nov. 11, 2006
Final:
1. PETEK Matevz SLO
2. PIIROINEN Peetu FIN
Small-final:
3. MATTILA Risto FIN
4. MAUSSER Florian AUT
1/4-Finals:
5. WIIG Andreas NOR
6. GIMPL Stefan AUT
7. KRATTER Giacomo ITA
8. NADIG Benedikt SUI

Entry Filed under: Extreme sports, snow adrenaline