White lands tomahawk and wins half-pipe

Shaun White lived up to his favourite's tag to retain his men's half-pipe title in emphatic style at Cypress Mountain.

The American wrapped up gold with a stunning first run, which included back to back double corks with double grabs.

The 23-year-old scored 46.8 out of a possible 50 to win from Finland's Peetu Piiroinen and US team-mate Scott Lago.

Already certain of victory before his second run, White then thrilled the crowd with his trademark double McTwist 1260 to improve his score to 48.4.

The double McTwist 1260 sees White flip twice while completing three and-a-half twists. He threw it in as the last move of his victory lap to wow the judges.

"I just felt like I didn't come all the way to Vancouver not to pull out the big guns," White said of his innovative second run.

"I put down the tricks I've worked so hard on."

Piiroinen also produced a stunning second run to move ahead of Lago to take silver, but he was still 3.4 points adrift of White.

Britain's Ben Kilner scored 3.1 and 17.0 after falling on both his runs in the semi-final to finish 18th.

However, the 21-year-old believes the experience will stand him in good stead for future Games.

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"I'm pretty disappointed right now, but I came here to qualify for the semi-finals so I'm really happy with that," he said.

"I now need to go out there and learn the new tricks that the top guys are doing.

"For Sochi 2014, I'll hopefully be able to catch up with them.

"The great thing about the half-pipe is that it never stops evolving; new tricks are being invented all the time.

"I've got another two or three Olympics in me, so it's only just the beginning for me, but it was good to come here and get the experience."

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