Hannah Teter gets second halfpipe win of the World Cup season in Japan

Hannah Teter gets second halfpipe win of the World Cup season in Japan{mosimage}USSA — Hannah Teter captured her third World Cup halfpipe victory Sunday in Sapporo-Makomanai, Japan, with a 37.9-point run despite slow pipe conditions due to wet snow. It was her second win in as many years in Japan and second of the season after winning the World Cup opener in September at Valle Nevado, Chile.

“It was snowing super hard, but it was the wet stuff that still feels like rain when it hits you, so you had to really work the transition,” said Teter. “It always feels good to get a victory and it’s cool when I can show up at a World Cup and still do well, since we don’t get to make it to many of them.”

Teammate Lindsey Jacobellis was fourth behind local Soko Yamaoka and Torah Bright of Australia. On the men’s side, 2004 X Games champ Steve Fisher led the U.S. men with sixth behind a stacked field that included winner and World Cup leader Antti Autti of Finland and his teammate Risto Mattila, who finished second.

“This was a world class field, there’s no doubt about that,” said head freestyle coach Bud Keene. “The Finns, the Germans, the Swedes they’re all solid and these are the riders that we’re going to see in the Olympics, so it was a good experience for us. Luckily there are strong competitive series, like the Grand Prix, already in place in the U.S., so we don’t have to travel overseas much, but when we do, we’re prepared.”

The Japan event was about adjusting back to the FIS style of judging as the panel focuses on precision and amplitude more than technical riding. According to Keene, Teter won with a run that included a frontside 540 and a backside 360 that were 2-3 feet higher than any other rider, but in a national event, her 540 would have been a 900 and she would have gone for a McTwist as well.

“Our riders are used to throwing down technical runs,” said Keene, “so this was an adjustment. Fisher did his stock run, qualified well and was on his way to the podium, but he sketched the slightest bit on his second run of finals and it knocked him out. The conditions were also the toughest we’ve seen all year and it was really hard to keep your speed in the pipe. Luckily Franklin our Swix wax tech dialed it in and had our riders flying.”

The U.S. team gets one more World Cup start in Japan on Feb. 28 with a halfpipe slated for Niigata Joetsu-kokusai.

Snowboard World Cup
Sapporo-Makomanai, Japan
February 22, 2004
Women’s Halfpipe
1. Hannah Teter, Belmont, Vt., 37.9
2. Solo Yamaoka, Japan, 36.8
3. Torah Bright, Australia, 36.2
4. Lindsey Jacobellis, Bondville, Vt. 33.7
5. Fabienne Reuteler, Switzerland, 30.8

Men’s Halfpipe
1. Antti Autti, Finland, 44.3
2. Risto Mattila, Finland, 43.9
3. Xaver Hoffman, Germany, 42.5
4. Christopher Schmidt, Germany, 39.9
5. Kazuhiro Kokubo, Japan, 38.9
Also:
6. Steve Fisher, St. Louis Park, Minn., 38.7
14. Mason Aguirre, Duluth, Minn., 34.6
19. Chris Nelson, Mammoth Lakes, Calif., 32.8
21. Tommy Czeschin, Mammoth Lakes, Calif. 31.8
42. Luke Mitrani, Stratton, Vt., 20.1