It was an ending both surreal and thrilling for the 2019/20 FIS Snowboard Halfpipe World Cup season on Saturday night at the Snow Rodeo in Calgary, where Cai Xuetong (CHN) and Scotty James (AUS) earned the season’s crystal globes in two vastly different ways, with Cai winning the night’s contest to break a tie with her biggest rival Liu Jaiyu, and James beaten for the first time in 12 international competitions by 17-year-old phenom Ruka Hirano (JPN).
Cai claims unprecedented sixth globe with win
Coming into Saturday night’s event, Chinese compatriots Cai and Liu were deadlocked atop the halfpipe leaderboard with 3000 points apiece after four events, with only the season’s final competition in Canada left to decide the season outcome.
Cai came out gunning in her first run, stomping a method, frontside 900 indy, backside 540 mute, air to fakie, and a cab 720 for a score of 87.25. That run would stand the test after the likes of Maddie Mastro (USA) failed to cleanly stomp her signature double crippler in her second run, and Liu came up short with a gutsy effort of a third run after crashing heavily in her second attempt.
The win would give Cai her sixth halfpipe crystal globe in 10 seasons of World Cup competition – a truly remarkable rate of success that shows no signs of slowing down as the 26-year-old continues to progress and adapt her runs each season.
“I’m super happy, super stoked to have my sixth globe tonight,” Cai said with her trophy in hand, “I wanted to step it up in my second and third runs and I couldn’t, but I’m happy that my first run was good enough. This crystal globe is special to me. In China right now there’s the coronavirius, and it’s scary for my country. We can’t go home to China right now, but this globe is for China.”
Second place on the day went to the hugely impressive 15-year-old Mitsuki Ono of Japan, who claimed her first career World Cup podium in her fourth World Cup competition with a score of 84.25, just a few weeks after winning gold at the Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympic Games.
And third place on the evening belonged to Liu Jaiyu, who could barely walk to the podium following the competition, making her third run high score of 82.75 even more impressive as it came after her extremely heavy slam onto the Calgary pipe’s deck in run two.
Liu would have to settle for second on the 2019/20 final standings behind Cai, while Spain’s Queralt Castellet would round out the season podium in third overall.
Hirano wins the battle, while James wins the World Cup war
Over in the men’s competition, the outcome that was beginning to feel impossible finally occurred, as Scotty James’ winning streak was halted at 12-straight by Japan’s Ruka Hirano.
Throughout the past two seasons the battle at nearly every competition has essentially been between James and 18-year-old Japanese rider Yuto Totsuka, with Hirano lingering in the background as something of an afterthought.
On Saturday however, with Totsuka not in attendance in Calgary, Hirano suddenly put himself front-and-centre of the halfpipe world, knocking King James off his perch with a thrilling display of halfpipe riding.
Starting his final run off with a frontside 900 tail, Hirano would then go backside double cork 1260 mute, frontside 1440 indy, cab double 1080 bus driver, and finally finish things off with a frontside 1260 to earn a score of 94.75, his first World Cup win, and the rare distinction of better Scotty James.
“I’m very stoked,” Hirano said through his coach and translator, “To win my first World Cup is very special, and even more special to do so against Scotty James.”
Despite finishing off the top of the podium for the first time in nearly two full season, with a score of 92.75, James did more than enough to leapfrog Totsuka on the final 2019/20 halfpipe World Cup rankings to earn his third career crystal globe.
“It’s a good thing I won this, because if I walked out of here with nothing there might have been some tears tonight,” James joked from the finish area after awards were wrapped up.
“It’s hard, obviously, not to win tonight,” James went on, more seriously, “It was a long streak. You’ve got to show up for every run, every contest. Ruka brought an absolutely amazing run tonight, but maybe I should have brought a little more myself a little sooner. Obviously I’m disappointed, mainly in myself. Everyone else did an amazing job, rode really well, but I slid out on the last hit of my last run and it is what it is.”
Third place on the evening would go to Switzerland’s Pat Burgener, who stomped a gutsy final run for a score of 89.50 and his first podium of the 2019/20 campaign at the season’s final event.
Totsuka would finish in second on the overall rankings, while Hirano would remain in third to round out the season podium.
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Source: FIS Snowboards
Photo: Buchholz/FIS Snowboard
