Italy hosts 2009 World Cup Snowboard Finals: results from the Valmalenco

The 2009 Snowboard World Cup finals were held in Italy on the weekend, in the small ski resort of Chiesa in Valmalenco, in the Valtellina region of Lombardy.
International snowboard champions visited from all over the world, competing in the parallel, half pipe and snowboard cross events in the Italian alps.

In the snowboard cross women’s event, first place went to Maelle Ricker from Canada, in front of Dominique Maltais in second, also from Canada, and Zoe Gillings from Great Britain in third.
The snowboard cross men’s final saw Michal Novotny from the Czech Republic take out first place, with second place going to Nick Baumgartner from the US and third place to David Speiser from Germany.

The below gallery of the World Cup Snowboard finals includes highlights from the half pipe event, with the women’s trophy going to Jiayu Liu from China in an impressive performance.
She was followed by Holly Crawford from Australia in second place and Sarah Conrad from Canada in third.