Uemura wins first moguls World Cup title of the season in Japan

AIKO Uemura has won her first freestyle skiing moguls World Cup title of the season in front of her home crowd in Inawashiro.

The Japanese skier, who was fourth in last month's Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, scored 23 points as bad weather played havoc with the conditions.

Olympic silver medallist Jennifer Heil from Canada, came second with 22.73 points while American Shannon Bahrke also repeated her Vancouver exploits to take bronze with 22.2 points.

Heil remains the overall World Cup leader with three events to go in this season's calendar, while Uemura is third behind American Heather McPhie, who finished fourth today.

American gold medalist Hannah Kearney did not compete in Asia but will rejoin her team mates in Europe for next week's competition taking place in Are, Sweden.

The men's and dual moguls events in Japan were cancelled due to the poor visibility.