Reigning Olympic champion Ayumu Hirano punched his ticket to February's Milan-Cortina Winter Games on Friday as he led a Japanese sweep of the men's halfpipe podium at the snowboard World Cup in China.The Beijing 2022 gold medalist took an early lead at the Secret Garden resort with a first-run score of 93.50 that remained unbeaten by any other rider.Yuto Totsuka was runner-up with 90.25 and became the all-time leader with 22 podium finishes in park and pipe World Cup competition.Three-time reigning overall World Cup champion Ruka Hirano took bronze with 89.00 and secured his second straigh…READ FULL ARTICLE
