Kelly Clark

Kelly Clarke atop women's podium.

Peetu Piiroinen

Men's Podium PIpeThe final day of the 12th annual Burton European Open went off today with Peetu Piiroinen (FIN) and Kelly Clark (USA) taking home the halfpipe titles, earning themselves 1000 Swatch TTR Ranking points, a piece of the $125,000 USD prize purse and automatic qualification into the 2012 World Snowboarding Championships taking place next February in Oslo, Norway. Peetu advanced in the TTR Tour Ranking to World No. 3 with his win today strengthening his position in the TTR Top 10, while Iouri Podladtchikov (SUI), who today placed third, moved into the tour lead. On the women s side Kelly Clark moved into World No. 11, putting some pressure on the women in the Top 10.

Kelly Clark Brings a Top Performance Despite Morning Fog
The day kicked off with a small delay due to some clouds hanging over the pipe forcing the organizers to change the format. All women went from semi-finals straight into a two-run final of 21 riders. Kelly Clark (USA), once again, set the bar for the rest of the field and put down her best run on her first drop throwing down a frontside 900, backside 540, frontside 720 and finished with a Cab 720. With her first place finish here, combined with her victory last weekend at the 6Star O'Neill Evolution, Kelly has made her presence known in the Swatch TTR World Ranking and will be a competitor to watch out for throughout the rest of the season. Kelly had this to say about the day, "I love this pipe and I come here every year. It's one of my favorite events to come to because the pipe is so much fun to ride," and she continued to talk about her win saying, "It's great winning another 6Star event, I'm looking forward to the Burton Canadian Open and the Burton US Open and to see if I can't get a few more good results."

Behind Kelly was young Spanish rider, Queralt Castellet, who has been shaking things up in the women's halfpipe scene and broke into the TTR Top 50 with her second place finish today, as did the Japanese rider, Yuki Furihata, who placed third.

History Repeats Itself in the Men s Halfpipe
On the men's side, Iouri Podladtchikov (SUI), took third place with big spins in the pipe to move into the TTR World No. 1 spot. But, it was Finnish halfpipe machine, Peetu Piiroinen, who took down the win for the second year in a row, which improved his position in the World Rankings to World No. 3. Peetu blew the crowd away with his last run made up of a frontside 720, Cab double cork 1080, frontside air, backside 900 and a backside alley-oop rodeo. Peetu was very happy with his win saying, "This win means a lot to me, I would not have thought that I would be able to defend my victory from last year. It was a really great weekend, second place in slopestyle and first in pipe and I have some other good results on tour which means I could fight for the TTR title again." Style master, Kazuhiro Kokubo (JPN), took second place with an excellent display of how riders can excel with a run focusing on style in the halfpipe.

Next on the Swatch TTR Tour
With the 6Star Burton European Open wrapped up, there are two new tour leaders in the World Tour Ranking and the competition for the Swatch TTR World Tour Champion title is heating up. The next major event on tour will be the 5Star Burton Canadian Open going down the first week of February, which will feature slopestyle and halfpipe for both men and women. The 6Star Billabong Air & Style Innsbruck, a big air invitational event for men only, will take place on February 5 followed by the Nike 6.0 Air & Style Munich one week later on February 12. Stay tuned for videos, photos and blogs on www.ttrworldtour.com