The halfpipe podium at Calgary:

Men
1. Arthur Longo (FRA)
2. Justin Lamoureux (CAN)
3. Ben Kilner (GBR)

Ladies                                                 
1. Zhifeng Sun (CHN)                    
2. Xuetong Cai (CHN)                   
3. Holly Crawford (AUS)              


Zhifeng Sun (CHN) and Arthur Longo (FRA) have won the fifth halfpipe contest of the 2010 LG Snowboard FIS World Cup. At Canada Olympic Park, right outside of Calgary, Alberta, the Chinese rider successfully competed in the ladies’ final under flood light by earning 43.4 points. World Cup leader Xuetong Cai finished as runner up (42.1) thus securing a back-to-back 1-2 punch for China. Holly Crawford from Australia finished third (40.8). On the men’s side, Arthur Longo celebrated his first ever World Cup win in his 13th start. By scoring 45.1 points, the Frenchman relegated local hero Justin Lamoureux (CAN, 43.6) to the second rank. Ben Kilner (GBR, 40.3) rounded out the podium as third.

After his career’s first ever victory Arthur Longo was pretty speechless in the finish area. “I don’t know what to say. I have competed in so many contests before and always fell. That I was able to end this series with a win is amazing”, the 21-years-old finally summed up. In his first ever World Cup final and after a 16th rank as best result so far (Saas-Fee, 2009), the young gun from France put it all together, got rid of all unsteadiness and edged so far leading Canuck Justin Lamoureux off the hot seat.

Due to a “cab 720”, “frontside air”, “backside 900”, “frontside 1080” and a final “switch alley oop backside rodeo 540” Longo also kept his chance of claiming one of the national spots for the up-coming Olympic Games in Vancouver which will decided tonight. “Maybe I made it with this result.”

Lamoureux misses big chance

One man’s joy is another man’s sorrow: by sticking this run Longo denied Justin Lamoureux to clinch his first win in his 61st World Cup start. And the 2006 Olympian who had placed only once on the podium before (Stoneham 2002) had never been so close to victory.

“Of course I’m a little bit disappointed. But in the end I cannot complain. I got beaten by a better run” the 33-years-old stated. But finally, his technical and smoothly executed run didn’t bring home the desired triumph although he had sticked almost all of his tricks all the way done switch: “switch backside 540” to “cab 900”, “switch method”, “cab 720” and a “frontside 720” to finish things off.

But although he missed his big moment today’s result and the fourth rank of last week came out as a nice momentum builder while focusing on the up-coming major event: “This was definitely good for my confidence. My goal is an Olympic medal – just like everyone.”

In Vancouver, Lamoureux will meet Ben Kilner again who will also seek his chance for a good result. The Scottish rider, who had earned his career’s first podium today – just like the smiling winner Arthur Longo – said: “I cannot believe it. I tried to do well before the Olympics and now I hope I can do so again.”