Jasey-Jay Anderson of Mont Tremblant, Quebec, returned to World Cup competition this past weekend after sustaining a concussion at the opening snowboard cross event at Valle Nevado, Chile.
The 27-year-old Anderson, the overall World Cup champion for the past two seasons, raced in the parallel giant slalom and slalom events in Soelden, Austria last weekend, finishing 17 th and 11 th respectively.
While he’s used to finishing higher in the rankings, his coach made it clear that he wasn’t going to push Anderson back to championship form.
"Jasey-Jay understandably played it safe today," said national team coach Christian Hrab.
"He’s recovering well from the injury and looked great at our recent training camp. But there’s no doubt he received quite a shock when he was injured. The course here was in perfect condition, very icy, and you couldn’t afford to make a mistake. He just wanted to get a good run in this week."
Matthieu Bozzetto of France won the PGS, edging out Felix Stadler of Austria in the final heat. Alexander Maier and Kosir Dejan were third and fourth respectively.
Also for Canada, 23-year-old Jérome Sylvestre of Bromont, Quebec, continued to improve, finishing 19 th in the PGS.
On the women’s side, Whistler’s Alexa Loo tied her best World Cup result in finishing 19 th .
"Alexa worked hard in the off-season and it is paying off for her," said Hrab. "It’s encouraging to see her land a top 20 result."
Loo was 31 st overall in the parallel slalom on the following day.
Hélene Cloutier of St. Georges-de-Beauce also cracked the top 30, landing in 29 th position in both the PGS and parallel slalom events.
Meanwhile the national freestyle team is doing dryland training in Quebec, and have been using the acrobatic training facilities at Cirque de Soleil headquarters.
