Grandvalira Total Fight – full report
This year’s Grandvalira Total Fight presented by Burton and San Miguel, couldn’t have been better. A super huge lineup, nice weather conditions and quite a surprise so to say, when looking at the last three years back of this TTR 4 Star event, which went down last weekend in Andorra (which is not Spain!). The Total Fight is each year host to a wide bunch of Scandi riders, especially Finnish ones, but also riders from overseas like Argentina take each year the chance to be part of this event. Especially for Spanish riders, who aren’t really big in competitive snowboarding yet, the Total Fight is another chance to hop on the TTR train and gain more experiences on the competition circus.
Thanks to Thursday’s snowfall and the following bluebird day on Friday the 2012 edition of the Total Fight couldn’t have started better. A 10 metres down rail followed by an impressive San Miguel look alike 2m by 4,5 m jib can and 3 massive crowd pleaser kickers where the park features, on which 31 riders took the chance to impress the judges and qualify for further rounds.
Isaac Verges slaying the down rail | picture by: FMR
Finnish rider Hanri Lakkonen who qualified first, put down in his best run a BS Lipslide on the first rail, followed by a 50 to BS 180 on the San Miguel can and finished his run on the three kickers with a SW BS 5, a BS 7 Mute and a FS 7 Indy. Long time favorite on the Total Fight Ville Uotila (FIN), qualified third for the next day.
On Saturday, the rider lineup got cut down by half, so that only 16 of the former 31 riders made it through. Burton rider and Norwegian shred head Kime Rune Hansen (NOR) dominated the first round with technical Switch tricks and mellow steeze on the jumps.
Kime Rune Hansen sending it for the qualify round | picture by: FMR
On the second round, the left riders got paired to battle in heats and kick each other out in a head-on-head system.
- Kim Rune Hansen (NOR) vs. Carles Turner (SPA)
- Valtteri Paunonen (FIN) vs. Joachim Krogstie (NOR)
- Hanri Lakkonen (FIN) vs. Albert Piñol (SPA) \\ changed with Santi Gamen (ARG) due to injury
- Ville Paumola (FIN) vs. Isaac Vergés (SPA)
- Patrick Cinca (GER) vs. Facundo Vial (ARG)
- Roni Rintale (FIN) vs. Nico Fuentes (ARG)
- Ville Uotila (FIN) vs. Mattias Schmitt (ARG)
- Nuuti Niemela (FIN) vs. Tommi Rokolampi (FIN)
Ville Paumola on his way to the podium | picture by: FMR
Who was left in the end for a serious eight riders final and a last head-on-head round was Kime Rune Hansen (FIN) vs. Patrick Cinca (GER), Nuuti Niemela (FIN) vs. Ville Uotila (FIN), Hanri Lakkonen (FIN) vs. Ville Paumola (FIN) and Valtteri Paunonen (FIN) vs. Nico Fuentes (ARG).
The most exciting battle in this last round clearly was between the Finn battle between Nuuti Niemela and three consecutive times before Total Fight winner Ville Uotila, who couldn’t handle Nuuti’s huge Double Corks on the last jump and saw himself earlier out of the comp than anybody expected on that night probably.
Nuuti Niemala going for it in the finals..going huuuge | picture by: FMR
Finals are always nuts and on this night in Andorra it wasn’t any different. How could it, having three Finns and one German rider in one final! Paumola, Niemela, Paunonen and Cinca were the names on that night. The best run out of three and that was enough for Finnish ripper Nuuti Niemela, who tasted blood that night and just went for it. FS Lipslide on the rail, 50/50 180 out on the jib can, a Cab 9 Stalefish on the first jump, a FS 10 on the second and a BS Doble Cork 12 on the last kicker spoke clearly for Nuuti’s win that night, ending up 1st in front of Ville Paumola (2nd), Patrick Cinca (3rd) and Valtteri Paunonen (4th).
perfect blue bird day to get podium on a contest - FLTR: Valteri Paunonen (FIN -4th), Nuuti Niemala (FIN - 1st), Patrick Cinca (GER - 3rd) | picture by: FMR
„I love this event, it’s one of my favourites. I’m so stoked with my round, the Slopestyle was so good and you had to get lots of speed to do good tricks. I’m really happy to be here”. – Nuuti on his win.
Overall € 14 grand got split between the riders: € 7’000 for the first, € 4’000 for the second, € 2’000 for the third and € 1’000 for the fourth spot.
The 2012 Grandvalira Total Fight was over and just had to be rounded off with a nice party of course in form of the Total Fight Night Jibbing and the San Miguel Night Music – Flaix FM party, with the amazing Crappy Tuesdays DJs on the turntables.
Results:
