COWDAY is Japan's top snowboarding contest that started in 2015. This season, now in its 9th year, was held over three days at the HAKUBA2024 Winter Sports Park in Nagano as the FIS-certified Snowboard Slopestyle Asia Cup ``COWDAY SLOPE47''. Olympians such as Shinkan Murase and Ryuki Tobita, as well as young riders who are active on the world stage, such as Yuto Miyamura, will do their best to reach the top. Itsuki Inamura brings you a report on the COWDAY finals, where a heated battle took place.
Women's winner Shinkan Murase
Men's winner Yuto Miyamura
The final was held for a total of 2 participants, 27 men and 10 women, who had passed the preliminary round on February 6th (Tuesday), making it a competition worthy of determining the top in both contestants and skill level.
On-site spectators giving passionate looks to the players
Women's final
The women's final was held with a total of 6 participants. The national team's Yura Murase and Momo Suzuki successfully passed the qualifying rounds, led by Shinkan Murase, the winning candidate. Rina Yoshika, a 24-year-old who experienced the Beijing Olympics and is now a veteran, Himari Ishii, a 14-year-old rising star whose performance in the big air the other day is still fresh in her memory, and Suzuka Ishimoto (Ishimoto Kanojo no Suzuka) was also named.
Shinkan Murase wins with dignity
He achieved a high score of 1 points in his first run. No other player was able to get a better score than Murase, and he went on to win the championship. She scored solid points in her specialty jib section, connecting perfectly from a backside 82.68 to a cab 900 despite difficult-to-see snow conditions.
Last year's COWDAY SLOPE 2nd place finisher, Moe Suzuki, maintained her 720nd place position this year with a highly accomplished backside 720 to frontside 2.
Women's winners
1st place: Shinkan Murase 82.68
2nd place: Moe Suzuki 72.28
3rd place: Himari Ishii 63.78
(From the photo: Moe Suzuki, Shinkan Murase, Himari Ishii)
| Women's final standings (ranking, player name, best points) | ||
| 1 bit | Murase Kokomo | 82.68 |
| 2 bit | Moe Suzuki | 72.28 |
| 3 bit | Himari Ishii | 63.78 |
| 4 bit | Murase Kokomo | 82.68 |
| 5 bit | Moe Suzuki | 72.28 |
| 6 bit | Himari Ishii | 63.78 |
Men's final
The men's final was held with a total of 10 players. Yuto Miyamura (Yuto Miyamura) and Aoi Kimura (Kira Kimura), who are active on the world stage with the national team, passed the qualifying rounds smoothly. They were followed by Ruki Tobita and Kaito Hamada, who had experience at the Beijing Olympics. Other members include young competitors Kaito Ichinose and Tomoyoshi Nojiri, Atsuhiro Suzuki and Ryoji Fujitani, who have experienced COWDAY SLOPE, and Ozora Okajima, who has a unique style. (Dia Okajima) and Yukyo Negishi (Ukyo Negishi) were included.
Yuto Miyamura shows off the difference in his level of perfection and wins
He achieved a high score of 1 points on his first run. The jib section has a perfect hardway 91.96 in and 270 out. The jump section that followed also flowed perfectly from 270 on the front side to 1260 on the switchback side. He achieved a high degree of difficulty and perfection in all sections, resulting in an overwhelming victory.
Ryuki Tobita came in 2nd place, Aoi Kimura in 3rd place
In his second run, Tobita connected a switchback side 2 to a front 1260, showing a highly difficult flow of backside 1080 in and switch 180 out, but unfortunately he could not reach Miyamura with 360 points and finished in 2.2nd place. Ta.
Aiki Kimura, who won last year's tournament, had a great second run, connecting a cab 2 to a backside 1260, and a cab 1260 in and a cab 270 out, showing a great flow, but a mistake in the upper jib section affected him slightly. , the result was 630rd place.
Men's winners
1st place: Yuto Miyamura 91.96
2nd place: Ryuki Tobita 89.76
3rd place: Aoi Kimura 84.44
(From left in the photo: Ryuki Tobita, Yuto Miyamura, Aoi Kimura)
| Men's final standings (ranking, player name, best points) | ||
| 1 bit | Yuto Miyamura | 91.96 |
| 2 bit | Ruki Tobita | 89.76 |
| 3 bit | Aoi Kimura | 84.44 |
| 4 bit | Kaito Hamada | 78.36 |
| 5 bit | Akira Fujitani | 75.8 |
| 6 bit | Kaito Ichinose | 68.5 |
| 7 bit | Tomoyoshi Nojiri | 67.9 |
| 8 bit | Ozora Okajima | 31.14 |
| 9 bit | Atsuhiro Suzuki | 28.02 |
| 10 bit | Yūkei Negishi | 24.84 |
COWDAY SLOPE2024 final distribution video
You can watch the athletes' skating in the finals from the link below. You can jump to each rider's first and second runs in the video description, so you can watch the rider's run you're interested in.
https://youtube.com/live/ZL3oVzynDJ0
