Sven Thorgren (SWE) and Celia Petrig (SUI) won the 2012 Protest World Rookie Finals in Ischgl, Austria, and were crowned WSF 2012 World Rookie Champions with a special prize giving ceremony including live music and special guests. It was the largest edition ever of the World Rookie Finals with more than 90 riders and 20 national teams.



Despite of bad weather conditions, it was possible to complete the event in Ischgl and to crown the WSF 2012 World Rookie Champions. Several program variations took place to face the heavy snowfalls and low visibility conditions but in the end all the riders were able to hit 2 runs during the Rail Session on Friday, and one run in the slopestyle on Saturday. Sven Thorgren from Sweden resulted the best male, while Celia Petrig was the best girl: they won title of WSF 2012 World Rookie Champions and got amazing prizes which will support their snowboard careers. Among the groms, Norwegian ripper Fridtjof Tischendorf resulted the male winner for the second time in a row, while Swiss Romana Petrig was the best girl. The grom champions got "Golden Tickets" to enter every World Rookie Tour event in 2013 free of charge.

"I feel so well, couldn't be more happy!" stated the new WSF World Rookie Champion Sven Thorgren after the prize giving. "I want to say thank you to all the staff that organize these events, it was great to ride the Rookie Fests and it helped me a lot for my snowboard career. So, all you kids out there, keep riding the rookie fest events because they are awesome and they will help you in your career."

During the prize giving ceremony, Austrian punk band "Sempre Caoz" played the World Rookie Tour Song, written during the Music Workshop with riders and with some people from local social organization "Lebenshilfe Tirol". The song was used in the soundtrack of the official video of the event as well: check it out! Other side activities included in the event program were a SafeSex Workshop for the older riders organized by Gummi Love, and an Avalanche Clinic by PIEPS for the groms.

Many other prizes were assigned to the top riders of the event: 2 all-inclusive snowboard trips to Australia, a video shoot with Pirate Movie Production, several invitations to Onboard and Cooler photoshoots, 5 invitations to the 2013 Halfpipe Rookie Fest in Monte Bondone Italy, avalanche transceivers by Pieps and many other goodies.

Photos on Facebook.

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