Two podium placings in two days in Calgary have kept Holly Crawford on top of the World Cup snowboard halfpipe standings. Crawford followed her bronze medal in the opening Canadian event on Saturday with a silver today, her fourth podium in six events.
Two podium placings in two days in Calgary have kept Holly Crawford on top of the World Cup snowboard halfpipe standings.
Crawford followed her bronze medal in the opening Canadian event on Saturday with a silver on sunday, her fourth podium in six events.
She leads the World Cup title chase on 4100 points, holding a 500 point lead over defending World Cup champion Manuela Laura Pesko, who collected double gold in the Calgary leg of the circuit.
Polish rider Pauline Ligocka is in third place on 3350 points.
Crawford, 23, started badly in the second event, falling in the opening qualifying run.
But on her second run she was back to her best form, posting a 41.9 point run to qualify in second place, just 0.2 behind Pesko.
The first run of the final was an even closer contest between the two leading title contenders, Pesko scoring 40.8 points to the Australian's 40.7.
In the second run of the final, with only the best score of the two runs counting, Crawford fell again, allowing the Swiss skier to make her final run under no pressure.
With the gold already wrapped up, Pesko didn't hold back, lifting her score to 41.5 points, and edging closer to Crawford on the standings.
Chinese 16-year-old Jiayu Liu took the bronze, her second podium in just her second event.
With three events remaining on the calendar, and 200 points difference between gold and silver, the title chase promises to be a close contest.
Crawford's rookie Olympic Winter Institute team-mate Hannah Trigger followed her 10th on Saturday with a 13th placing in the second event of the weekend, an impressive debut weekend.
Australia's two male riders, Andrew Burton and Ben Johnson failed to make the finals.
"It was another great day overall for Holly," said OWI Head Snowboard Halfpipe Coach Ben Wordsworth.
"She fell in her first qualifying run, but then stood up really well to the pressure of having to perform in the second run to make the final."
"Then she trained really well for the final, and came out and really stomped her first run."
"She is riding great at the moment, arguably getting the biggest backside airs of all the women, and matching it with Pesko who is the World Cup Champion and the 2007 world champion."
"It's been a tough few weeks, but Holly is standing up to it really well, and we're looking forward to next weekend in Lake Placid."
