Today was all about the Scandinavians and Japanese during the season's second World Cup halfpipe. Aside from temperatures of about minus 14 degrees centigrade, the conditions were good: blue skies and a pipe which was groomed to perfection.
With Stefan Karlsson, Markus Jonsson and Daniel Nordin sitting in the top seats after yesterday's qualifications, the Swedes had been the number one contenders for a win in the men's competition, but none of were able to duplicate yesterday's results in these finals. However, Sweden did claim the win with Magnus Sterner finally turning the card. The 21-year-old from Leksand was the one who carried the team at last season's finals when two of his teammates — Tomas Johansson and Fredrik Sterner — could not compete due to injuries. And he was there to repeat that performance today.
In the first of two final runs, Sterner took the lead and none of his nine rivals could make it up in the second run. "I did not expect this to happen at all," Sterner said, "so it is just great. I did not even think about being able to break through with three of my teammates in the finals and the Japanese riders being really strong, too. My 'frontside Haakon' for sure did contribute a lot to the result although it does not relate to just one trick — it was the whole thing which went well today."
Japan's Daisuke Murakami and Takaharu Nakai, both from Sapporo, and just 17 and 16 years old, completed the podium and both were obviously overwhelmed. "The pipe was a good one for me," Murakami said, "you could speed the run up and go big — it was the best I have ever seen."
His friend and training partner, Nakai, who claimed the bronze confirmed: "It became really hard today, the shape was just great so there was nothing to complain about, except for the cold. It is perfect that me and Daisuke made it up together."
Apart from winning today's contest, Sterner took the Halfpipe World Cup lead. Stefan Karlsson, who finished 5th is second overall now ahead of Gian Simmen from Switzerland who won the season's first event but was not at the start in Whistler.
The women's competition almost looked the same with Stine Brun Kjeldaas from Norway winning her second in a row and two Japanese in 2nd and 3rd. Kjeldaas finished 1st in the qualifications, had a solid first run today and none of the other five women in the finals could catch up, despite her second-run fall.
"When I was at the start I knew I won," Kjeldaas said, "so I tried to go higher to even improve my result, but it was so cold and I could not get the speed I needed to do bigger."
Michiyo Hashimoto from Osaka, second in the qualification, was close but did not catch up with Kjeldaas today and pulled 2nd. "The pipe was very good," she said, "and I really liked the transition. I am coming to Whistler every season for training so I have got a lot of friends around and they were the ones who pushed me to the limits."
Tokyo native Nagako Mori came in 3rd and was really happy: "It does not really matter what you are doing in training — the competition is always something different. I am glad I worked it out today. I had so many things in my head and really tried to concentrate today so I am glad it paid off."
With two consecutive wins, Kjeldaas is further leading the World Cup standings. Sweden's Anna Olofsson finished 4th today and claimed 2nd place overall. Hashimoto moved up to 3rd place.
The Whistler event concludes tomorrow with he Giant Slalom and then the riders head on to Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec.
— Britta Semmler, MountainZone.com Correspondent
