Silver medal and World Cup title for Scotty James in Calgary

From www.owia.org

Scotty James has finished second and taken out the third World Cup title of his career at the final FIS World Cup snowboard halfpipe event of the season in Calgary, Canada.

The silver medal ends the amazing 11 win streak for the VIS Snowboarder, which commenced after his Olympic Games bronze medal performance in PyeongChang, Korea, in 2018.

After qualifying in first place, James posted his best score of 92.25 points in the second run of finals, but it wasn’t enough to top Japanese rider Ruka Hirano who scored 94.75 points on the third and final run. Rounding out the podium was Patrick Burgener of Switzerland with a score of 89.50.

James said in his post competition interview: "I feel pretty good, it's probably bitter sweet to say that obviously it hurts a little bit to finish in second but it is what it is. Ruka rode amazingly and he was the guy tonight.

"A big thank you to my team and everyone supporting me, it's amazing to come away with a Crystal Globe, these aren't easy to win these days, so it's definitely exciting."

James now has three World Cup titles, having finished first on the standings previously in 2014 and 2017.

This years standings saw Scotty James on top with 3800 points followed by Yuto Totska from Japan second on 3400 points and fellow countryman (today's gold medalist) Ruka Hirano third with 2800 points.

The final event of the season for James will be the US Open in Vail, Colorado, USA, on Saturday February 29.