Silver in the halfpipe for James in opening World Cup of the season

Images courtesy FIS

Article courtesy OWIA

Scotty James has claimed silver in the opening FIS Snowboard World Cup Halfpipe event of the season at Secret Garden, China, giving the 30-year-old from Warrandyte in Victoria the 16th World Cup medal of his decorated career.

Competing on the Beijing 2022 site where James won the second Olympic medal of his career, James qualified for finals in third place.

Under sunny skies in the best of three run final, the triple World Champion was unable to put a clean run down in his first two runs, but saved his best for last, with a spectacular final run scoring 88.25 points from the judges to move into second place.

Taking the win with the two highest scoring runs of the event was Japanese rider Yuto Totsuka of Japan with a best score of 95.50 in his last run, with another Japanese rider Ryusei Yamada in third on 87.75.

Competing for Australia in the women’s event was Misaki Vaughan, who finished in 23rd place.

American Maddie Mastro was victorious in the women’s final ahead of Xuetong Cai of China in second with another American Madeline Schaffrick rounding out the podium in third. 

Copper Mountain in Colorado, USA, will host the next FIS World Cup halfpipe event on December 20.

SNOWBOARD HALFPIPE RESULTS
Full FIS World Cup snowboard halfpipe men’s results here
Full FIS World Cup snowboard halfpipe women’s results here