Ruka Hirano, of Japan, stands on the podium after his win in the halfpipe finals Saturday, Dec. 11, 2021, during the U.S. Grand Prix snowboarding event at Copper Mountain, Colo. (AP Photo/Hugh Carey)

       TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Ruka Hirano soared to the second snowboard halfpipe World Cup victory of his career on Saturday, as Japanese riders featured heavily at the top of the leaderboard in Colorado.

       The 19-year-old Hirano scored 89.25 on his first run at Copper Mountain resort to beat Switzerland's Jan Scherrer by 0.75 point, with Japan's reigning world champion Yuto Totsuka third on 87.75.

       "I wanted to make sure of my first run and after that I was thinking of aiming for higher scores with harder tricks," the victorious Hirano said. "My goal for the season is winning gold at the Olympics."

       Two-time Olympic silver medalist Ayumu Hirano was fourth, missing the podium by 0.50, while Raibu Katayama finished seventh, one place ahead of three-time Olympic champion Shaun White of the United States.

       The 23-year-old Ayumu Hirano is on the cusp of his third straight Olympics, having provisionally met the Ski Association of Japan's qualification criteria for the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.

       Japan's Sena Tomita was second in the women's halfpipe competition won by China's Xuetong Cai, with Mitsuki Ono fifth and Haruna Matsumoto seventh.

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