Canadians Matt Hayward and Sarah Burke took top honors at the Inawashiro World Cup Halfpipe event, this weekend in Japan. Under some grey skies, tremendous halfpipe skiing went down, resulting in another win for Sarah this season and a 2nd world cup gold for Hayward.
“In the finals, Hayward started his run with an absolutely perfect 1260, setting the tone for the rest of his run, which was huge and smooth. His first run score of 46.50 proved unmatchable by the rest of the field, and he earned his second World Cup Gold Medal of the season. Riddle was all about big hits and perfect grabs, and was sitting in second place until the final run of the event by the semifinal winner Kalle Leinonen from Finland. Kalle just edged ahead, bumping Mike into 3rd place. Justin Dorey was going crazy in the pipe, taking chances and linking together all sorts of technical combos. He narrowly missed the podium and ended up finishing fourth.” -Trennon Paynter
No doubt that many of the competitors will be leaving Inawashiro headed towards the Joetsu-Kokusai Resort for the Nippon Open next weekend.
Men’s Finals Results:
1) Matt Hayward (CAN)
2) Kalle Leinonen (FIN)
3) Mike Riddle (CAN)
4) Justin Dorey (CAN)
5) Xavier Bertoni (FRA)
6) Reto Comicioli (SUI)
7) AJ Kempainen (FIN)
8) Walter Wood (USA)
9) Loic Collomb-Patton (FRA)
10) Kentaro Tsuda (JPN)
11) Byron Wells (NZ)
12) Yutah Ueno (JPN)
Women’s Finals Results:
1) Sarah Burke (CAN)
2) Jen Hudak (USA)
3) Davna Williams (AUS)
4) Roz Groenewoud (CAN)
5) Jess Cumming (USA)
6) Manami Mitsuboshi (JPN)
Note: This event will not be scored on FFL
