Brown Bear is pleased to announce that New Zealand earned its first medal at this year’s Snowboard Junior World Championships. Yesterday the Junior Snowboard Halfpipe World Champions were crowned at Cardrona Ski Area.

In the women’s team Cilka Sadar (18) from Slovenia became World Champion, while 14-year-old Taku Hiraoka from Japan earned the title in the men’s competition. New Zealand was thrilled to see Rebecca Sinclair (18) in the silver position after landing a tricky Crippler 7 (inverted 720 Spin) despite an injured ankle! Second in the men’s division was Australia’s Nathan Johnstone (20), and the podiums were rounded by Haruna Matsumoto (17) from Japan and Manuel Pietropoli (20) from Italy respectively. New Zealand snowboarder Ben Stewart (18) finished in ninth place.

Head Judge Ola Sundequist says: “[The riders] 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.”

Today, Snow Park NZ will take centre stage in the snowboard action. Qualifications for the Parallel Giant Slalom start at 9am and finals will kick off at 12pm. And as usual Brown Bear will be right there cheering for the New Zealand snowboarders!