Reigning world champion Yuto Totsuka's gold medal performance in the men's snowboard halfpipe final gave him his first victory of the season on Sunday, the fifth and final day of Dew Tour Copper Mountain in Colorado.
The 20-year-old from Kanagawa Prefecture earned the title with a score of 95.50 after a monster run that bumped American Taylor Gold to second and Ruka Hirano to third. Four Americans made up the 10-man field in the final.
Ayumu Hirano, who finished fifth with 86.75, landed the first-ever triple cork, a trick that involves three off-axis flips and four spins, in a snowboard competition.
He did a front side triple cork 1440 on his last run, but he crashed out on his next trick.
Hirano, 23, has two silver medals from snowboarding at the 2014 and 2018 Winter Games. He competed in skateboarding this year at the Tokyo Summer Games.
"It was my dream to win this event so I'm really happy. It's (what Ayumu Hirano did) is crazy but I want to pull it off too," Totsuka said.