A little bit of order has been restored to the universe. Ayumu Hirano is back atop the podium after competing in a contest.
Hirano took down Yuto Totsuka in The Snow League’s second stop of the season in China. Totsuka had won the league’s first event in Aspen and was the leader in the championship standings going into the week at China’s Yunding Snow Park.
Hirano finished in third place in Aspen. He said in an interview that he wasn’t satisfied with a third-place finish at that first contest.
“It was like we were competing in the Olympics,” he said on the broadcast after. “It was a real battle.”
Totsuka pulled out a new trick in his finals run: a frontside double cork 1620 tail grab. He landed it perfectly, but bailed on his final hit of the run. It was a tough situation to be in as Totsuka was running out of room in the halfpipe, but needed a fifth hit to remain competitive with Hirano.
Hirano followed up with a mellow run, if you can call a run that includes a Cab double cork 1440 and a 16-foot frontside double cork 1080 mellow.
Jenny Lang/The Snow League
Hirano fell on his second run, trying to put down a 1240 double Japan. All Totsuka needed to do was land his second run on his feet to push the final to sudden-death, and he did just that. Totsuka pulled out the 1620 again in his third finals run, but fell on the last hit again, as he clipped the lip of the pipe.
That set up Hirano for a smart final run. He opened with a 900 Weddle, then a Cab double cork 1440 Weddle, followed by back-to-back 900s, and a frontside double cork 1080 truck driver.
One of the coolest possibilities about The Snow League unfolded in Ryusei Yamada and Yuto Totsuka’s semifinal run: The two agreed to take just one hit in the first run of their semifinal. Yamada bailed on a switchback double rodeo. Totsuka put that trick down. It was a move that confused the announcers, and even Shaun White himself, who was sitting in the booth.
Jenny Lang/The Snow League
17-year-old American Alessandro Barbieri finished in fourth place for the second time this season. He took Japan’s Ruka Hirano to a sudden-death third run, where he played it a bit safe, but landed all of his hits en route to moving forward to the semifinals.
He couldn’t quite put down the cleanest triple cork 1440 on the first hit of his second semifinals run, and that caused him to lose momentum. He fell later in that run. Later, Yamada took down Barbieri with a score of 75 to claim that final spot on the podium. It was an impressive recovery for Yamada, as he decked on the lip of the halfpipe in his final hit of the first third place matchup run, which led Barbieri to win that first run with a score of 55.
Hirano jumps up The Snow League World Championship Standings to second place behind League leader Totsuka
Related: Patti Zhou Wins The Snow League’s China Stop At Just 14 Years Old