With Jiayu Liu (CHN) and Ryoh Aono (JPN) two of the main aspirants for Gold grabbed the Halfpipe title at the 2009 FIS Snowboard World Championships Gangwon, Korea presented by LG. In addition, both titles were the first ones for Asia in the history of so far eight World Championships.

Liu nailed it in the second run of the ladies’ final after she had bailed her first on. With 43.5 points, the shooting star relegated Holly Crawford (AUS, 39.6) and Paulina Ligocki (POL, 38.5) to the second and third rank respectively. On the men’s side, Aono simply confirmed his top performances of the training and qualifying sessions. The 18-year-old rider with an indoor background threw in the best runs in both heats earning 47.3 points to win Gold. Jeff Batchelor (CAN, 44.4) and Mathieu Crepel (FRA, 43.3) rounded out the podium as second and third so the top-3 consisted of those riders who had won all four Halfpipe World Cups in the same pipe before.

But it was last year’s winner of the Halfpipe World Cup in the Hyundai Sungwoo resort who coped best with the icy and windy weather conditions. Aono started with a huge Stalefish followed by a Backside 540 into back-to-back 1080’s and back-to-back 900’s while adding strong grabs to all of his rotations. This, plus his massive air time, made him the deserved new World Champion, the first one ever for Japan, after two years ago Kazuhiro Kokubo had missed the Gold medal finishing as runner-up. “I’m very proud of this win. I was here to take this title and I did it by giving my best in a strong competitor field.”

Like Aono, Jiayu Liu had won the last World Cup in Gujo before going to Korea to compete in the World Championships. And like her Japanese pendant the 18-year-old took home Gold being the first Asian to do so at a major event making herself a late present twelve days after her birthday. “I’m so proud to win the World Championships. The organising committee provided a perfect pipe. I gave it all after I put myself under pressure with a bad first run.”

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2009 FIS Snowboard World Championships Gangwon, Korea – halfpipe results:

Ladies                                             Men

1. Jiayu Liu (CHN)                         1. Ryoh Aono (JPN)

2. Holly Crawford (AUS)             2. Jeff Batchelor (CAN)

3. Paulina Ligocka (POL)           3. Mathieu Crepel (FRA)