Scotty James (AUS) and Xuetong Cai (CHN) shine in a magical
night at the halfpipe
 Sierra Nevada congregates more than a thousand spectators to see
one of the most attractive disciplines of the Championships.

Both winners keep the gold medal won two years ago in
Kresichberg World Championships.
The Australian Scotty James and the Chinese Xuetong Cai did it again. With
their performances tonight, they kept the Snowboard Halfpipe World Champion title
obtained two years ago in Austria. Yesterday's best 10 men and 6 ladies qualified for
the finals today.
If Sierra Nevada's pipe was in magnificent conditions yesterday, as most of
riders confirmed, today crews worked also very hard to keep it perfect, so its 160 meters long, 6.8 meters high and 21 meters width, with a gradient of 18º, were the perfect
scenario for the riders to impress all the attendees with their astonishing tricks during
the finals.
Unlike yesterday's qualification, when riders had two runs, today each athlete,
ladies and men, had three attempts, which increased snowboarders' margin of error.
Riders had to perform between 5-7 tricks from side to side of the pipe. The role of the
judges was essential, although Cai and James ruled their finals from the first run.
In this fight for the medals, the numerous Spanish spectators missed Queralt
Castellet, who could not make it to the final. This event has been, so far, the crowdest
one of the World Championships, with over a thousand people cheering and encouraging every single finalist.
As for the ladies, with Queralt and the World Cup leader Jiayu Liu (CHN)
knocked out, Xuetong Cai attracted all the attention. Cai did not want any surprises
and from the first run she led the ranking with a score of 90.75 points, that in the end
were enough to result World Champion.
Haruna Matsumoto (JPN) completed the most consistent final, scoring over 80
points in all her runs to win the silver medal. As well as Xuetong Cai, she did her best
in the first run (84.75). Clemence Grimal (FRA) won a new bronze medal, repeating
her podium in Austria two years ago. After two bad runs, the judges valued her aggressiveness in the tricks over the execution. She got 79 points, surpassing Hikaru Oe
(JPN), who finished with 77 points in the fourth position.
Over in the men's event, Scotty James gave no chance to his opponents. A
hundred points is the highest score riders can get and James reached 95.75 and 97.50
in the first two runs, unattainable for his adversaries. In his last run, aware that he was
World Champion, he slided down the course greeting spectators standing on both
sides of the pipe.
Men's final was tighter, with four snowboarders over 90 points. Switzerland,
with four riders in the final, completed the podium: silver medal went for Louri Podladtchicov (93.25) and bronze medal for Patrick Burgener (90.50).