Three Whistler girls in top-15
Whistler’s Crispin Lipscomb was the only Canadian to qualify for the finals in a World Cup halfpipe contest at Sapporo-Makomanai, Japan last weekend, finishing eighth overall.
Antti Autti and Risto Mattila of Finland took the top two spots, and Xaver Hoffman of Germany was third.
For Canada, Guillaume Morisset of Stoneham, Quebec was 20 th , Toronto’s Brad Martin was 25 th , and Whistler’s Dan Raymond 28 th . Hugo Lemay of Beauport, Quebec, was 33 rd .
None of the World Cup women qualified for the finals, although three riders did manage to finish in the top-15 – Mercedes Nicoll was 12 th , Maelle Ricker 14 th and Dominique Vallee 15 th . All three call Whistler home.
On the women’s podium, the top three were Hannah Teter of the U.S. followed by Soko Yamaoka of Japan and Torah Jane Bright of Australia.
The day before, Mont Tremblant’s Jasey Jay Anderson won another medal in the parallel slalom, finishing second overall in a battle against Mathieu Bozzetto of France. Daniel Biveson of Sweden was third.
"I’m happy to be on the podium today because I was very tired throughout the competition and made a number of mistakes," said Anderson, who is the running for his fourth consecutive World Cup title. "I got more comfortable in the man-eating ruts. The snow was soft and wet so the ruts became monstrous as the day went on."
In the women’s parallel slalom, Julie Pomagalski and Isabelle Blanc of France took the top two spots, followed by Ursula Bruhin of Switzerland.
In the first day of competition, Anderson was ninth in the parallel giant slalom. Bozzetto won the first of two gold medals on the weekend, followed by Simon Schoch of Switzerland and Daniel Biveson.
The women’s contest went to Daniela Meuli of Switzerland, followed by Doris Guenther of Austria and Tomoka Takeuchi of Japan.
The World Cup season continues this weekend with an event a Niigata Joetsu-kokusai, Japan. The finals take place from March 11 to 14 in Bardonecchia, Italy.
