Marko Grilc has won the O’Neill Evolution slopestyle final in emphatic style with a run containing a double backflip, a double cork 1080 and a 5/0 backflip off the up-rail at the end.
“I am so stoked,” said the Slovenian snowboarder. “It’s been a tough day. I slammed like crazy. I am in full body pain, so in the end when it worked out I was so happy!”

After an awesome first run of the finals for which he was awarded a score of 93.50, Marko was unable to follow it up on his next two runs. “I was trying to pretend like I was pushing myself, but actually I was trying not to!” he joked of trying to avoid more pain.

However despite an impressive victory here in Davos, Switzerland, Marko has lost his Swatch TTR World Tour lead to last year’s World Champion, Peetu Piiroinen.

“I knew that he would take over the lead,” said Marko. “Even before he dropped in he was taking over the lead. I will do my best to fight for it. But I am also going try to ride and have fun.”

After a third place finish in the 6 Star halfpipe yesterday Peetu followed it up today once again with a third place finish on this short but extremely challenging 5 Star O’Neill Evolution slopestyle course.

“It has been a really fun contest here,” said Peetu “It’s still the beginning of the season and there are many events coming – but it’s still nice to be first!”

Separating the Slovenian and the Finn battling for World Tour supremacy was another Finn Ville Paumola who also took to the skies with force.

Sitting in 82nd place on the Swatch TTR World Tour, Ville was ecstatic with his second place finish.

“I just tried to stay calm,” said Ville whose last run of the slopestyle finals catapulted him into second position. “But to be honest I wasn’t really that nervous because I didn’t expect to come second.”

With his winning run of a switch backside 900, frontside 1080 and a boardslide 270 off the up-box, he pushed last year’s O’Neill Evolution slopestyle runner-up Seppe Smits back into fourth position.

“I am not disappointed,” said Seppe. “I am just happy that I made fourth place… it’s not bad!”

However, Seppe was the only rider of the entire competition to stick a 1260. “The jump wasn’t super big, and a 1260 is a lot of spinning so you’re pushing to get it,” said the Belgian rider. “But I was stoked to land it as I haven’t managed it too much this season.”

He was even more stoked with his finish given the level of talent at this O’Neill Evolution 2010. “The level just rose up in the sky compared to last year,” said Seppe. “It was really crazy this year. Everyone was just throwing down double corks. And everyone was landing so clean. It was insane.”

FINALS RESULTS

1 Marko Grilc SLO 93.50
2 Ville Paumola FIN 90.00
3 Peetu Piiroinen FIN 89.67
4 Seppe Smits BEL 89.50
5 Sondre Tiller NOR 85.50
6 Eric Willett USA 80.33
7 Elias Elhardt GER 77.83
8 Stale Sandbech NOR 76.33
9 Torgeir Bergrem NOR 76.00
10 Sean Ryan USA 74.00
11 Mathieu Schaer SUI 68.50
12 Kevin Backstrom SWE 62.83
13 Mark McMorris CAN 61.67
14 Gjermund Braaten NOR 44.50
15 Janne Lipsanen FIN 30.00
16 Tore Holvik NOR 29.67