<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was an explosive start to the 2022/23 FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe World Cup on Saturday night in Switzerland at the jam-packed Big Air Chur Festival, where the Japanese team got a blazing start on the winter with three podiums - including dominant victories for <strong>Reira Iwabuchi </strong>and<strong> Takeru Otsuka</strong>. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There were well over 15,000 people on hand at the Big Air Chur on Saturday, where clear skies, the music festival atmosphere, and the enthusiastic Swiss crowd all came together to kick the new World Cup season off on an incredible high once again.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>IWABUCHI STOMPS EVERYTHING FOR EIGHTH CAREER VICTORY</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">No one on the women’s side rode that high better than Reira Iwabuchi, as the 20-year-old stomped all three of the highest scoring runs of the evening - including a final-hit frontside 1080 chicken salad for her victory lap that would earn her a score of 90.00.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That score, combined with the contest-high 90.75 score that she banked for her first hit backside double cork 1080 weddle grab, would give her a combined score of 180.75, putting her 16.50 points clear of runner-up <strong>Anna Gasser</strong>. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“It was crazy!” Iwabuchi said after stomping her final run, “This was really important to me. It’s my first competition since the Olympics and it’s been such a long wait for me, and I’m so stoked to get first place this year (in Chur).”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Iwabuchi’s victory was the eighth of her career for the two-time big air crystal globe winner, and it came against the reigning Olympic champion Gasser, who pulled out all the stops to catch her Japanese counterpart but fell just short.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gasser lead her night off with a backside double cork 1080 melon on her first hit, where she scored an 84.75 but likely lost some points when she was forced to edge hard in her landing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After stomping a signature cab double underflip 900 weddle for 80.00 points on her second run, Gasser needed a score of 96.00 points or better to catch Iwabuchi, and though she pulled out all the stops by going for a cab 1260 melon but couldn’t quite keep the landing gear down, forcing her to settle for second place in Chur for the second year in a row. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also earning the same spot on the podium as she did last year was Canada’s <strong>Jasmine Baird</strong>, who stomped a cab double underflip weddle and a backside 720 weddle for a score of 131.25 and a third-place result.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>OTSUKA NEAR FLAWLESS FOR FIRST WORLD CUP WIN IN ALMOST FOUR YEARS</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On the men’s side of things there was even less question about who was the top dog on the evening, as Takeru Otsuka stomped two near-flawless runs to best his nearest competitor by almost 27 points on his way to his first World Cup victory in nearly four years. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Otsuka come out firing in a first run where all but two competitors failed to land cleanly, as the 21-year-old put down a massive frontside triple cork 1440 weddle grab for a score of 77.75.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With an easy lead after that first run, Otsuka stepped it up in his second attempt, landing bolts on a backside 1620 melon that would stand as the highest scoring jump of the evening with a 88.75, giving him a two-jump score of 166.50 and reclaiming a spot on the top step of the podium that had eluded him for so many seasons seasons.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“This is my first time on the podium in like four years,” Otsuka said after the awards ceremony, “So I’m pretty stoked to be back on the podium I guess. There was so many people here and the feeling was really good tonight.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Behind Otsuka, most of the other men struggled to bring their A-game to the Big Air Chur on Saturday. However, that didn’t mean there wasn’t any drama, as the rest of the field battled to put together combos that would land them somewhere even in the vicinity of the winner.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Best in that regards was Otsuka’s Japanese teammate <strong>Ruki Tobita</strong>, who managed to land a stylish backside 1620 stalefish in run two and then a frontside 1260 melon in run three for a combined score of 140.00 and his fourth career World Cup podium.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Just behind Otsuka was the people’s champ of the evening, as 20-year-old <strong>Nick Puenter</strong> of the host Swiss team earned his first career World Cup podium with a huge entourage of his family and friends on hand and several times swarming the finish area in celebration.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Puenter stomped a backside triple cork 1440 weddle and a frontside double cork 1080 weddle for a two-jump score of 125.50, giving the party people on hand in Chur something special to celebrate as the festivities carried on well into the night.</div><div><br /></div>