Katie Summerhayes upstaged fellow British freestyle skier James Woods as she claimed her maiden slopestyle World Cup podium finish on only her second start in Silvaplana while he finished tenth.
Woods has made a fine start to the season winning the World Cup opener in Argentina and repeating the trick on Copper Mountain before claiming Winter X Games bronze last month.
However it was the turn of Summerhayes, who snapped her anterior cruciate ligament last year, to hog the limelight at the third World Cup of the season in Switzerland and her first since the injury.
Summerhayes finished tenth on her one and only World Cup start last March and ranked fifth in the halfpipe at the inaugural Winter Youth Olympics last year as well as carrying the Team GB flag.
The 17-year-old produced a first run score of 71.4, which was to be her winning total after a 56.6 second time out, for silver in the final on only her second-ever World Cup start.
Norway’s Tiril Sjaastad Christiansen was the clear winner with an effort of 85.2 and then 88.8 while Summerhayes was comfortably ahead of Anna Segal, who scored 64.8 for third.
World Cup leader Woods meanwhile could only manage a best run of 64.6 in Silvaplana to rank tenth after qualifying for the final in second place behind with a score of 74.8.
Johan Berg completed a sweep of victories for Norway just ahead of Klaus Finne after responding to his teammates’ leading first run total of 83.2 by hitting 85.2 second time out.
And there was something for the home crowd to celebrate in Silvaplana as Switzerland’s Fabian Boesch took third place by just 0.4 ahead of Sweden’s Oscar Wester.
© Sportsbeat 2013