Kjersti Buaas and Iouri Podladtchikov have won the second FIS snowboard World Cup halfpipe contest of the season in Saas Fee, Switzerland.

Podladtchikov took over the lead in the qualifying round with the best run of the day in the second final heat (45.6 Points) with a frontside 1080 and a cab 1080. His win also gave him the lead in the halfpipe World Cup rankings.

Janne Korpi (FIN) landed second place with 43.9 points in front of the second Swiss on the podium Christian Haller (39.4).

"Everything worked out really great today," said Iouri after his win.  "In this amazing pipe I could show some really good runs. I just needed one trial to land my tricks."

He also is pleased with his move from the Russian to the Swiss team in the beginning of the season: "I’m very happy that the changeover worked out. I often went riding with my new team mates in the past and we became really good friends."

In the women’s contest, Kjersti Buaas from Norway celebrated her first World Cup victory for more than five years. With a clear and safe run (40,6), she left the China’s Chen Xu (37,9) and the reigning World Champion from Switzerland Manuela Laura Pesko behind (36,6).

Kjersti was pretty surprised by her victory: "I didn’t think I would win here. - I wasn´t even sure if I would make it to the finals. But for sure it’s a great victory. It has been fun riding with so great weather conditions too."

Men
1. PODLADTCHIKOV Iouri (SUI)
2. KORPI Janne (FIN)
3. HALLER Christian (SUI)

Ladies                                                
1. BUAAS Kjersti (NOR)                       
2. XU Chen (CHN)                                
3. PESKO Manuela Laura (SUI)