Banked Slalom Finnish Champs and Finnish spring – what a combo!

April 20, 2019
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On April 6th Banked Slalom Finnish Champs were held in Tahko, Finland in an amazing weather. The event, organized by Finnish Snowboarding Association, was full of joy as the perfect course was enjoyed by nearly 100 riders under a Finnish spring sun.

The annual Finnish Champs were held a second year in a row with lots of riders returing to Tahko. There were pro riders such as Heikki Sorsa, Siv Knudsen and Anton Lindfors, former pro riders like Joni Malmi, Sami Tuoriniemi and Heppu Pentti and a bunch of amazing riders from all ages.

The competition was held in three categories: Open, Rookies and Adaptive. Unfortunately reigning adaptive banked slalom Finnish champ, Paralympic gold winner and X Games gold medalist Matti Suur-Hamari couldn’t compete this year, but it was great to see Tomi Taskinen and a new face Sampsa Kankkunen on course. In the end it was Kankkunen taking gold with a solid run.

In open category it was a tough race. At first it seemed Jenni Viitanen and Anton Lindfors would be having an easy year as they both had straight great runs, but as the two-hour-session got further, other riders began to get better times. Unfortunately for the others, good for Jenni and Anton, but the rest of the field wasn’t fast enough. So boardercross World Cup rider Anton Lindfors took another gold, and so did Jenni Viitanen. Silver medalist in men Heppu Pentti was only 0,5 second behind Anton, and there were five riders inside one second. In rookies it was Roni Aalto and Jasmin Kaikuranta taking the fastest laps.

And not to forget team challenge on day before. With ”Gone Fishin’” theme it was a blast as riders wearing all kinds of funny costumes were killing it on course. In the end it was Team TB (brothers Jari Tuoriniemi and Sami Tuoriniemi) taking the fastest laps and enjoying the victory.

Thank you for all for taking part and see you next year with even better race!

Banked Slalom Finnish Champs were supported by Burton Snowboards, Tahko, Tahko Chalet, and Vision Fly Fishing

Open, men:

1. Anton Lindfors 33,45

2. Heppu Pentti 33,96

3. Panu Ruotsalainen 34,20

Open, Women:

1. Jenni Viitanen 37,71

2. Siv Knudsen 38,37

3. Heidi Latola 38.95


1. Sampsa Kankkunen 43,47

2. Tomi Taskinen 1.10,71

Rookies, boys:

1. Roni Aalto 35,83

2. Elias Hämäläinen 36,85

3. Roomeo Aalto 37,08

Rookies, girls:

1. Jasmin Kaikuranta 41,09

2. Ronia Welling 41,86

3. Sara Nybäck 41,87

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