After a third-place finish to open the halfpipe season in Copper Mountain (USA), followed up by back-to-back wins in Laax (SUI) and Mammoth Mountain (USA), it was a foregone conclusion that the 20-year-old Mitsuki Ono would walk away from the season as the crystal globe winner even before competition in Calgary

However, on Friday not at Winsport Canada Olympic Park Mitsuki Ono put an exclamation mark on her season, with an exceptional, 89.75 point-scoring performance giving her a third-straight victory and an emphatic crystal globe win that was the first for a Japanese woman since Melo Imai’s World Cup title from the 2004/05 season.

“I’m so happy to win and get the crystal globe,” Mitsuki Ono said from the finish area, “Calgary is one of my favorite places because I got my first World Cup podium here three years ago. I still can’t believe this though. I’m so happy. Thank everyone for supporting me, I appreciate it."

Second place on the day - and second place on the final halfpipe World Cup rankings - went to Canada’s own Elizabeth Hosking with a score of 86.00. With some of the biggest and most stylish tricks in the women’s field, Hosking was just a couple of small bobbles away from possibly stealing the top spot on the evening from Mitsuki Ono. Hosking seems destined for her first career international win very soon, but on Friday she would instead have to settle for her second career World Cup podium and her first on home soil.

Third place on the night for the women was Switzerland’s Berenice Wicki, as the 20-year-old earned the first World Cup podium of her career with a 72.50-scoring first run. While Mitsuki Ono and Hosking were in a league of their own on Friday night, Wicki’s solid riding despite the wind in the first run gave her a deserved first international competition top-3.