Japans Hirano raises stakes for snowboarders
The next big leap in snowboarding went down on Sunday on a sun-splashed halfpipe in Colorado with a trick that set the stakes for the gold-medal race to Beijing. Japanese snowboarding star Ayumu Hirano finished fifth at the Dew Tour, but his spot in the standings hardly mattered. What did was that he became the first person to land the difficult, dangerous and once unthinkable triple-cork jump in competition. Its just a g