For the second-time in three days, Canadian Jasey Jay Anderson settled for a second place in World Cup snowboarding competition on Blackcomb.
In the Nokia World Cup GS on Dec. 11, Anderson finished second to Dieter Krassnig of Austria – not bad when you consider he was in seventh place after his first run.
"It was excellent today and I wish I could have ridden better in the first run," said Anderson. I wasn’t going for a safe run initially but it turned out that way. The second run was okay. I was a little more aggressive and I made up good time – I just lost by two hundredths."
Krassnig himself feels he could have done better. "I made some mistakes in the first run and even braked, which I usually don’t do. Being fifth then I was sure that I could make it up if I put everything into the second run – I had this feeling before at races which I finally won so I was really confident.
"After an injury two years ago it was a bit difficult to get it together last season but I got my confidence back now so I’m really happy."
The leader after the first run, and likely winner if he hadn’t made a mistake within sight of the finish line, was Richard Rikardsson of Sweden. "I’m happy anyway since the first GS this year didn’t go well for me," said the Swede.
Mark Fawcett was the next best Canadian to Anderson, finishing sixth. David Vaughan finished 16th.
The good news for Anderson and Fawcett is that the FIS is considering allowing GS World Cups to count towards berths at the 2002 Winter Olympics. The cancellation of Duel GS events in Europe –which is the official Olympic discipline – and the fact that there were too few DGS events on the schedule to begin with, allows competitors too few opportunities to earn FIS DGS points and win Olympic spots.
Vaughan, Francois Boivin (23 rd ), Darren Chalmers (24 th ), and Jerome Sylvestre (36 th ) also managed to collect FIS points.
In the women’s GS, Karine Ruby of France held on to the yellow number one bib for another week with another strong race.
"The course fit me a lot, the snow was just great so I was very confident," said Ruby. "Being in the lead after the first run, I knew I had to go fast in the second so I tried my best and it paid off."
Second went to Margherita Parini of Italy. Rosey Fletcher of the U.S., in second after her first run, dropped down to third after the second run.
"You never want to go back. It’s always nice to go forward but the competition is just getting better every year, so being third behind Karine and Margherita is great," said Fletcher.
The top Canadian women were Melissa Barclay (21 st ), Whistler’s Michelle Charles (26 th ), and Alexa Loo (28 th ).
