Second place with a score of 151.50 went to the USA’s own Hailey Langland, as the 22-year-old earned her first big air World Cup podium in just over six years. Langland kicked things off with one of the highlight tricks of the day – an absolutely huge cab 1080 Indy – before wisely putting down a safety trick frontside 720 melon on run two.
Langland tried to up her second trick to a frontside 1080 melon on run three, and had she stomped it there’s no doubt she would have ended up in first. Instead, however, she slammed heavily, and would instead have to settle for some bruises and second place.
Rounding out the podium in third place was Fukada’s Japanese teammate Miyabi Onitsuka, as the 24-year-old grabbed her first big air podium in almost exactly three years with a two-jump combo of a frontside 1080 weddle and a cab double underflip 900 weddle for a score of 149.75.
With some riders we haven’t seen in the podium mix yet this season ending up in Saturday’s top-3 at Copper, the names atop the FIS Snowboard women’s World Cup rankings did not change this week, with Reira Iwabuchi (JPN) and Jasmine Baird remaining tied in first place with 160 points.
KLEVELAND BRINGS HIS BEST FOR SEVENTH WORLD CUP WIN
Over on the men’s side of things we witnessed a mind-boggling display of technical snowboarding, with eight out of the 10 finalists stomping a run with a spin of 1620 or higher.
However, the rider that walked away the winner didn’t just rely on the gnarliest rotations currently possible to earn the victory, as Marcus Kleveland instead brought together a combination of brute spinning and purely unique style to what would end up being his seventh career World Cup win and his first big air win in five years.
After falling on his first hit backside 1620 when he went a little too big, Kleveland decided to simply up the ante on run two, putting down a backside 1800 Indy (with a sneakily stylish nollie butter pop on the takeoff) straight to bolts.
With his big spin in the bag, Kleveland brought out something truly special on his third and final run of the day, stomping a physics-defying nollie double frontside rodeo 1440 tailgrab. It’s a trick that likely no one else in the world can do, and certainly not in the finals of heavy-hitting World Cup.
With his 1800 scoring 93.25 and his nollie dub 1440 earning him a 91.00, Kleveland’s two-jump score of 184.25 would put him nearly 12 points clear of his nearest competitor.
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