McKenna and Kilner finish 14th and 16th respectively.

Soko Yamaoka (JPN) and Jeff Batchelor (CAN) have secured the victory in the season’s sixth halfpipe contest of the 2009 LG Snowboard FIS World Cup. In the night finals held at Stoneham, Quebec, the Japanese rider successfully competed against the rest of the ladies’ pack due to a score of 44.3 points. Shiho Nakashima (40.4) finished seconds taking over the World Cup lead with a total of 3,320 points from not started Jiayu Liu and now leading with only 20 points over the Chinese. Rana Okada (37.8) rounded out the Japanese podium sweep as third. On the men’s side, Batchelor (45.5) celebrated a double victory for his home country as his team mate Brad Martin (44.2) came in second ahead of third ranked Finn Markus Malin (43.2).

Already in the qualification, Jeff Batchelor had posted the top score thus intimidating that he would be the man to beat. According to this, the 21-year-old from Oakville, Ontario, entered the training for the night finals confidently. In the chair lift up to the halfpipe, the 2009 World Championships runner-up had already stated that he came here to win. Only a few minutes later, he proved his statement with an impressive first run showing that Batchelor definitely knows how to spell “air time”. He dropped in with a huge “Japan Air” followed by a “Frontside 900”, “Backside 900”, “Frontside 540” and a “Backside 1080” to wrap up the winning run which raised the bar too high for his contenders. “The last years, I was plagued in Stoneham (finishing 13th and 5th). This time, I came to take it. But now a big load is from my shoulders as I haven’t won in two years” Batchelor said after his career’s second World Cup win.

It could have been the second triumph for Brad Martin, too, but the 2006 Olympian missed it by only 1.3 points. However, Martin was more than pleased about his fifth podium in 31 starts. Another podium by the way which he snatched in Canada. It seems that the 23-year-old has a favour for contests in his home country as he had earned all of his top-3-finishs in Whistler, Calgary and Stoneham so far. “Last year (in Calgary) I was ahead of Jeff, this time he is first. It’s always fun to be on the podium with this guy.” That the decision for first or second was a close one didn’t affect him at all: “I had a lot of fun in an icy, big and simply perfect pipe here in Stoneham. I sticked my trick and this is what came out.” 44.2 points were the reward for his second run consisting of a “Frontside Air”, “Backside 540”, “Frontside 1080”, “Cab 720” and a final “Frontside 1260”, a run which was identical to the one of last week in Cypress where he ended up seventh.

Finn is best European