Granada Day 4: First medals for USA and host nation Spain

Victory in the men's halfpipe went to Japan's Ayumu Nedefuji whose opening run of 91.50 was enough to secure the second Japanese gold medal of the 27th Winter Universiade at Granada.

Americans Zachary Black (90.50) and Broc Waring (85.50) took silver and gold respectively, Black jumping above his compatriot after a stronger second run as the USA finally got its name on the medal table after 11 days of action in the games - both in Slovakia and at Spain.

"I feel very good. The level was very high and I was afraid of the Chinese riders, but in the end I chose the right tricks and that was enough to win the gold," said Nedefuji. "We have suffered bad weather conditions in training but today was thankfully a sunny day."

In the women's halfpipe, Catalonian snowboarder Castellet's second run saw her rise from fifth place to take the silver medal with 72.25 points.

Castellet's silver was a first medal for Spain although she finished more than 10 points behind overall winner Xuetong Cai of China, the current halfpipe world champion whose 82.50 points from the first round never came close to being bettered by any of her opponents.

In fact, Cai's second round effort of 75.25 points would in itself had been enough to win the silver medal had it been posted by any other competitor, underlining the utter domination of the 21-year-old old student from Harbin.

"I'm very happy with my result," said Cai, who beat Castellet earlier in the year at the snowboard world championships at Kreischberg. "It's been very difficult but I progressed a lot during the trainings. I achieved the level that I have now."

For her part, Castellet was pleased with her silver medal, which came after a nasty fall in the opening run which left the 25-year-old from Logrono with swelling around her left eye.

"I'm very happy. I would have liked to win but Kai is a very strong rival," said Castellet. "In this type of tests the winner is the rider who adapts best to the pipe and Kai did a very good job out there."

Switzerland's Carla Somaini won the bronze medal with 67.75 points after improving significantly on her first round score, which had her in fourth place behind compatriot Ramona Petrig, who dropped off the podium to fifth.

China's Juan Sun recorded the second-best opening round score but the same score was only enough for fourth place overall after her rivals all upped their game in the second run.

From snowboarding to alpine skiing, and the women's combined slalom gold was won by Russia's Daria Ovchinnikova, who rose from third place after the super-G to finish with a time of 1:49.80 after the slalom.

Ovchinnikova had reportedly been castigated by her coaches for only finishing seventh in Friday's super-G final and so victory in the combined event one day later would have been music to the 19-year-old Siberian skiers ears.

Pavia Klicnarova of the Czech Republic, fifth in the super-G, used the slalom to rise up and win the silver medal, 0.26 seconds in arrears.

Despite finishing more than a second down in sixteenth place in the super-G, Norwegian Maren Nessen Byrkjeland's fast slalom was enough to snare the bronze, 0.41 seconds down on Ovchinnikova and just one-hundredth of a second quicker than compatriot Kristine Fausa Aasberg, winner of Friday's super-G gold medal.

Poland's Karolina Chrapek, who led the competition after winning the super-G in a time of 1:02.04, missed a gate in the slalom and was disqualified.

In ice dancing, Italian pair Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri secured their nation's second gold medal of the games with victory in the free dance competition in the Granada Igloo. A short dance of 64.44 followed by a free skate of 100.54 gave the pair an insurmountable total of 164.98 points.

Spanish pair Sara Hurtado and Adria Diaz pushed them all the way but had to settle for silver with their haul of 163.56 points (63.12/100.44). Slovakia's Federica Testa and Lukas Csolly completed the podium with 142.76 points (53.04/89.72) to take the bronze medal and deny both Russia and China.

The pick of the day's ice hockey group games saw Sweden beat the Korean Republic 5-4 in the men's tournament thanks to a sudden death goal by Daniel Andersson, who had previously equalised early in the third period to level the scores.

Sunday's medal events include the women's free skating exhibition event and the men's alpine skiing combined competition.