The halfpipe World Cup season wrapped up in Valmalenco at the weekend.

Manuela Laura Pesko (SUI) and Crispin Lipscomb (CAN) grabbed the gold in the final contest of the season. In the ladies’ final, the rider from Switzerland (41 points) edged off Queralt Castellet (ESP, 40.3) by only 0.7 points to the second spot also winning her third consecutive halfpipe World Cup title. Zhifeng Sun (CHN, 36.9) finished third.

On the men’s side, new title holder Iouri Podladtchikov (SUI, 44.4) had to accept defeat by losing with only 0.9 points against Canada’s Crispin Lipscomb (45.3) who was able to claim victory at a season’s final for the second time after winning in Furano 2006.

Third-ranked James Hamilton celebrated the first ever men’s podium in the halfpipe World Cup for New Zealand.

After Karine Ruby (FRA) and Daniela Meuli (SUI), Manuela Laura Pesko is the third female athlete to defend her title two times in a row.

Before entering today’s competition at the FIS World Cup Grand Finals the 29-year-old was leading in the battle for the Crystal Globe with a lead of only 250 points on her opponent Jiayu Liu (CHN).

But due to her back-to-back win, her third triumph this season in total, the Lenzerheide resident brought home her fourth World Cup victory.

“I’m so happy that I won the title,” she said. “Although I had a small lead in the standings I had to stay focused. I tried to concentrate on my riding without watching what the other girls were doing. That worked out pretty good as I rode well. Finishing the season with a win is unbelievable.”

Iouri Podladtchikov also secured the trophy of the season’s best in his first World Cup year for Switzerland.

“I’m excited how the globe will look like”, said the 19-year-old after the finals. “I’m so stoked of winning the title as this is my first real one. I had a good season.”

But despite winning the title he was disappointed not to win the day’s event.
 
“I attacked the top score in the second run but bailed straight away the first hit. I wasn’t able to land my frontside 10 clean enough, crossed some ruts in the snow and fell,” he added.