Snowsports: Wells wins Winter Dew halfpipe event in Utah

Top New Zealand freeskier Jossi Wells, of Wanaka, won the halfpipe competition at the second stop on the Winter Dew Tour at Snowbasin Resort in Utah, on Sunday.

Yesterday, he finished in fifth place in the slopestyle competition of the same event, following a fall during his first run of the finals.

Wells' halfpipe win bettered his performance at the first stop of the Winter Dew Tour, at Breckenridge, Colorado, where he finished second.

Wells sealed his first-place 92.50 during his first run, landing a crowd-pleasing double flip and an allez-oop flatspin during his winning run.

The result has earned him the lead spot in the Winter Dew Tour halfpipe rankings.

However, Wells remains off the pace in slopestyle, the discipline in which he won silver at the Winter X Games.

The Wanaka teenager is in eighth place in the tour slopestyle rankings.

Paralympic alpine skier Adam Hall was another of Otago's top snowsports athletes to taste success at the weekend, when he won gold in a slalom at the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Alpine Skiing World Cup races in Abtenau, Austria.

Outram-born skier Hall had struggled with ill health in recent weeks and the gold medal result marked a welcome return to form, he said.

"I was really happy to make a comeback and win today.

"It has been two years since I won my last world cup [event]."

The result increased his confidence as he worked towards his goal of winning gold at the Paralympic Games in Vancouver in March, he said.

Queenstown-based snowboarder Shelly Gotlieb said she could have executed a cleaner run, after she finished fifth in the women's slopestyle at the European Burton Open on Saturday (NZ time).