Podladtchikov claims halfpipe victory at home World Cup in Switzerland

By Sportsbeat staff

FREESTYLE snowboard and halfpipe World Cup champion Nathan Johnstone watched on as Iouri Podladtchikov led a home country clean sweep at the final halfpipe event of the season in Switzerland.

Australian Johnstone travelled to Arosa already confirmed as the overall freestyle and halfpipe World Cup champion and finished fifth with Podladtchikov making full use of a partisan home crowd to win.

After an opening run to forget he impressed on his second outing recording a score of 27.6 with teammates Jan Scherrer and Patrick Burgener second and third with 27.2 and 26.9 respectively.

Johnstone was awarded a score of 23.3 and finished the season with a winning total of 3510 to claim the overall freestyle and halfpipe World Cup titles.

"The competition was great and everyone rode really well," said Johnstone - who won the World Championship halfpipe title in January. "I'm super happy that I won the Crystal Globe and stoked that the season is over."

Meanwhile with Xuetong Cai followed Johnston's lead in winning the women's overall freestyle and halfpipe World Cup titles after finishing third in Switzerland.

Xuetong, just 17, ensured the halfpipe World Cup remained in Chinese hands with a score of 24.7 - just ahead of France's Sophie Rodriguez.

However she was no match for Spaniard Queralt Castellet who claimed her and her country's first ever halfpipe World Cup win on her first World Cup outing of 2011 with an impressive score of 27.0.

Australia's Holly Crawford was second with 25.5 and Castellet said: "It's amazing that I was able to do it on my first World Cup appearance of the season. I felt super good in the pipe and I'm very happy that I was able to win."