Emily Arthur has secured her best-ever World Cup result after claiming sixth at the Secret Garden event in China.
SNOWBOARD HALFPIPE: Emily Arthur has secured her best-ever World Cup result after claiming sixth at the Secret Garden event in China.
The Youth Olympic silver medallist recorded her best score in the first of her three runs in the final as she put down a 70.00.
Looking to climb the rankings after a solid opener, the 18-year-old couldn’t quite land her desired run scoring 31.50 and 64.00 in her final two attempts on course.
"Was a tricky day today, I put down a good first run that I was pretty happy with and tried to step it up on my second run, which was going really well until the last hit where I unfortunately fell, but pretty stoked to walk away with 6th knowing I have more left in the tank," Arthur said, who was still really pleased with her first World Cup final hit out.
"My first finals was really fun! The pipe was perfect so it was super easy to send it!
"Hoping it will be the first of many."
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At the site of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games halfpipe competition, local favourite Jiayu Liu scored the victory with a run of 92.75.
Sena Tomita of Japan and Xuetong Cai of China rounded out the podium.
Having burst onto the international scene with Halfpipe silver at the Lillehammer 2016 Youth Winter Olympic Games, Arthur continues to show improvement as she pushes towards qualifying for her first Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang.
"Crazy to think there are only 50 days to go!
"I’m feeling better every day going into the Games, I’m super excited about the whole experience, and I can’t wait to get back on my board and get into training again."
Her result at Secret Garden saw her jump to 11th on the overall world standings, having entered the competition ranked 18th.
Matt Bartolo
olympics.com.au