Lake Wanaka, New Zealand – Benji Farrow, of Mt. Holly, Vt., and Hillsborough, Calif.’s Kelly Marren led the U.S. halfpipe crew, both finishing in sixth Wednesday in the 2010 Snowboard Junior World Championships held at Cardrona Alpine Resort in New Zealand. Taku Hiraoka of Japan and Slovenia’s Cilka Sadar won gold.n”It wasn’t our day, the athletes rode really well, but didn’t land their runs,” said U.S. Snowboarding and Freeride Manager Abbi Nyberg. “I am so proud of all the hard work and effort everyone showed this past week. It was a great halfpipe team and I look forward to working with them in the future.”

Farrow landed first for the U.S men scoring 36.70 in sixth ahead of Paul Brichta (Burnsville, Minn.) in eighth. 14-year-old Hiraoka stole the show, clinching victory with a massive score of 44.20 via a frontside air, backside 5, frontside 7, cab 10 and frontside 5, all with huge amplitude, over 12 feet above the pipe edge.

“It’s amazing to be world champion,” said Hiraoka. “It’s really important for my future in halfpipe – I’m so happy.”

Australia’s Nathan Johnstone, 20, and Italy’s Manuel Pietropoli, also 20, rounded out the podium with silver and bronze. Sadar, 18, was crowned women’s champion, scoring a 37.80, six points ahead of silver medalist New Zealand’s Rebecca Sinclair, 18, the first kiwi to podium at this year’s Junior Worlds, held for the first time in New Zealand. Japan squeezed into third with Haruna Matsumoto, 17, taking bronze.

Sinclair was glad to put her ankle injury, which kept her out of the Junior Worlds Snowboardcross, behind her.

“I wasn’t even expecting to be able to compete with my injured ankle,” Sinclair said, “but it’s all strapped up – I’ve been struggling with landing the crippler all week and I’m stoked I pulled it off in my second run. It’s a real privilege to have the Junior World Championships here in New Zealand and great preparation for my next goal which is the World Championships in Spain in January 2011.”

Olympic gold medalist, Kelly Clark of West Dover, Vt., and New Zealand Olympian Juliane Bray put a special touch on the day for all competitors by serving as forerunners.

Head judge, Ola Sundequist, said the level of riding was extremely high. “We were quite worried about the wind earlier on in the morning and that we wouldn’t see the riders get much height out of the pipe. However, they ended up going very big and while some were affected by gusts, most landed fine resulting in some good scores. Taku’s run was incredible, everything was so smooth.”

OFFICIAL RESULTS
2010 Snowboard Junior World Championships
Cardrona, New Zealand
August 25, 2010

Men’s Halfpipe
1. Taku Hiraoka, Japan, 44.20
2. Nathan Johnstone, Australia, 42.20
3. Manuel Pietropoli, Italy, 39.80
4. Masakaze Yoshida, Japan, 38.60
5. De Dimi Jong, Netherlands, 38.40

Women’s Halfpipe
1. Cilka Sadar, Slovenia, 37.80
2. Rebecca Sinclair, New Zealand, 31.70
3. Haruna Matsumoto, Japan, 31.40
4. Rana Okada, Japan, 30.90
5. Palmer Taylor, Canada, 28.90