Australia's Bright, Japan's Kokubo win Swiss halfpipe

Australian Torah Bright and Japan's Kazuhiro Kokubo won the second halfpipe competition of the Snowboard FIS World Cup against the world's elite freestyle talents.

Kokubo was on fire in the superpipe of Saas-Fee, Switzerland freestyle park Allalin. With a clean first run and spectacular jumps, he claimed the victory ahead of Mathieu Crepel of France and Peetu Piiroinen of Finland.

On the ladies side, Torah Bright dominated on the sunny day with two faultless runs and left Xuetong Cai of China and Sophie Rodriguez of France behind.

Two U.S. men competed in Saas-Fee, led by Kevin Pearce, who made the final after placing among the top 12 in qualifying on Wednesday. But he struggled on Thursday, finishing last. The other American was Jack Mitrani, who finished 22nd overall. No U.S. women made the trip to Switzerland.

After Kokubo's clean first run, all other riders had to do better in the second. But no one could reach his level of riding, what the winner realized right after the competition.

"I didn't expect to win here against the strong international riders," Kokubo said. "But it's a great feeling and an honour definitely."

Also very pleased was runner-up Crepel about his performance at the World Cup. "It was a great day in a great pipe. It's really good to be back after dealing with two injuries within the past six months," he said.

And even Piioinen could not catch the Japanese with big tricks like the Alley-oop backside rodeo and a cap 1080. "I can do better, but I'm pleased with my riding and the third rank here in Saas-Fee", Piioinen said.

Meanwhile, Bright demonstrated impressively why she belongs among the world's best freestyle ladies. She amazed the spectators and judges likewise with technical and spectacular jumps like the cap 720.

"I was so glad that we had a good weather today, it's much more fun then," she said. "I had to get used to the pipe first, but then I could demonstrate some good runs."

Runner-up Cai was also pretty happy. "I felt really good today. Unfortunately some of my hits were too short, but I'll keep on practicing and hope to perform a great run at the Olympics in a couple of months."

The third-placed Rodriguez also didn't have a reason to complain. "It was the first time I landed my planned run. So I'm for sure really happy and hope to keep that level and can even improve some tricks this season."

Content courtesy of: International Ski Federation