Jakara skis to silver on bumps
AUSTRALIAN snowboarding ace Scotty James has taken out an unprecedented third consecutive half-pipe world title in Utah.
A year to the day since James led the Australian team into the PyeongChang Winter Olympics opening ceremony, the Victorian blew his competition away with an unbeatable early run at Park City.
It was a successful weekend for Australian athletes, with Matt Graham and Barwon Heads’s Jakara Anthony taking silver in the men’s and women’s moguls — their first podium finishes at the world championships.
After qualifying top, Anthony — who announced her arrival in the sport by finishing fourth at PyeongChang — was only 0.15 points off the score posted by Kazakhstan’s Yulia Galysheva.
Two-time Olympian Graham qualified second and maintained that position in the super final as Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury claimed his third world title.
“I found a groove and I think I was absorbing up to my chin on some of those moguls they were so big. I’m really happy with the way I skied, and I feel a sense of closure,” he said.
But for James, after winning gold in 2015 and 2017, the win cements him as the only man to claim three world championships in the event.
On his first run, the PyeongChang bronze medallist scored 94.25, which was unobtainable for his rivals throughout the finals.
But the triple Olympian went one better and put down a 97.50 on run three.
Japan’s Yuto Totsuka claimed silver with 92.25 and Patrick Burgener, from Switzerland, took the bronze.
James said winning his third title was surreal.