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Canadian boarders rule World Cup

Team claims seven podiums in five events You can say what you want about home advantage, but snow is snow and the Canadian snowboarders have shown once again that they can jump it, ride it, and carve it as well as – if not better than – any

Team claims seven podiums in five events

You can say what you want about home advantage, but snow is snow and the Canadian snowboarders have shown once again that they can jump it, ride it, and carve it as well as – if not better than – anyone else.

Over five Nokia FIS Snowboard World Cup competitions in Whistler this past week, the Canadian snowboard team came up huge with seven medals and dozens of top 10 performances.

Snowboard Cross — Dec. 6

One of the best things about snowboard cross is that anything can happen. That also happens to be one of the worst things.

Despite the fact that they were out front of the competition all day, Canadians Drew Nielson and Jasey Jay Anderson had to settle for fourth and fifth place overall, after contact with the other racers in the upper part of the course. In both cases the judges ruled that the contact, which is inevitable when four World Cup snowboarders try to grab the fastest line down the course, was incidental.

"Unfortunately it’s part of boardercross," said Anderson, who was taken out of the finals after crashing into Pontus Stahlkloo of Sweden in the semi-finals.

"I had to pass on the inside and I had to nudge him off the course to do this line, and he didn’t like it, he beat Drew to the panel and he hit me in the air, causing me to cartwheel down the slope. Even if they (disqualified) him, I couldn’t make it to the finals because I flew off of the course.

"It’s disappointing obviously, but you don’t race to win every day, it can’t happen. Especially in a sport like boardercross or parallel, because you rely on other people so much that what you do is inconsequential some times."

Two false starts at the gate, one in the round of eight and the other in the semi-finals, meant Anderson had to make an extra two runs through the course.

Frustrated, Anderson destroyed the competition in the Small Final to take fifth overall.

"Does is vindicate? Just a little bit. I just kind of put my foot down and didn’t let people roll over me. I guess it was maybe my own little personal statement to myself.

"I did my job, I did well in the races, I just got unlucky near the end, and now I have to move on."

Although some of the events are clean and orderly, Anderson said the difference in course conditions and officiating is so varied from place to place that snowboard cross hasn’t proved that it can be an Olympic sport just yet. On the other hand, any attempt to clean up the sport could ruin it.

"People want to see crashes, they want to see carnage and action, that’s why boardercross is so popular. It’s definitely a rush for everyone."

Anderson, who is currently the reigning overall World Cup champion and one of Canada’s best hopes for a snowboard gold at the 2002 Winter Olympics, said he continues to compete in snowboard cross events because they are good training for racing and keep the intensity up.

The gold medal went to Simone Malusa of Italy, who was trailing in third in the semi-finals behind Stahlkloo and Anderson before they crashed.

"I was a little bit lucky," Malusa said.

Second place went to Australian Zeke Steggall, along with the yellow leader’s jersey that Anderson held coming into the event. Third went to Thomas Bourgault of France, and fourth to Nielson.

In the women’s event, Doris Krings of Austria led all day to take the win. Second went to Lina Christiansson of Sweden, third to Marni Yamada of the U.S., and fourth to Yoko Miyake of Japan. The top Canadian was Ali Amos in eighth place.

Halfpipe #1 — Dec. 7

The original World Cup schedule called for just one halfpipe in Whistler, but the lack of snow at Mont-Sainte-Anne forced the FIS organizers to move the event here. It was a good thing for a strong core of local riders who would not have made the trip otherwise, and who managed some strong results.

As it was, one Canadian made the podium and three others managed to make the top 10 on a pipe that the athlete’s agreed was near-perfect.

Ranked fifth after his first run in the finals, American rider Tommy Czeschin made a strong statement on his second run and posted the highest score of the day to win the gold medal.

Swedish rider Magnus Sterner slipped from first to second, while Canada’s Guillaume Morisset slipped from second to third.

If he was disappointed, Morisset didn’t show it.

"This is great," said the 21 year old, who trains at Stoneham, Quebec. "I needed a good result to get a safe spot within the Olympic team and this helps me a lot to get there.

"I had some good results also last year and got some as well already this year so I should be pretty safe."

The competition to become one of the four Canadian men competing in the 2002 Winter Olympics has gotten a lot tighter recently with the outstanding performances of some Canadians who were previously on the fringe.

While the FIS halfpipe event used to be considered dull, with the athletes’ playing it safe to get into the points, the increasing calibre of the athletes and changes to the judging have made it impossible to hold anything back. As a result, some riders who were on the fringe before are making it into the medals by pulling out all the stops.

"I went into the competition and just tried to give my best," said Morisset. "I was not going safe, but attacked – you can’t make it with a safe run in a contest anymore, everybody pushes himself so hard you have to put everything into it."

Whistler’s David Melancon propelled himself into fifth place overall, followed by Pemberton rider Mike Michalchuk in sixth. As usual, Michalchuk chose to go big and risk falling rather than play it safe and go for the points.

Daniel Migneault was ninth, Justin Lamoureux was 14 th , Ben Wainwright was 16 th , Jesse Kumlea 17 th , and Trevor Andrew 20 th .

In the women’s competition Canada’s Natasza Zurek started in the hole, over two points back of Austria’s Nicola Pederzolli. After Pederzolli tanked her second run, Zurek tried to spin her way back out front, but her best judged score left her an agonizing 0.2 points back.

"I didn’t quite do it like I planned but it was great, however," said the 23 year old Zurek. "Being in the finals was already something special. It’s great I got that far."

Germany’s Sabine Wehr-Hasler finished a close third.

Also for Canada, Whistler riders Maelle Ricker and Lori Glazier were fifth and eighth respectively. Kristi Yzerman was 16 th , Dominique Vallee 17 th , and Staecy Burke 19 th .

Halfpipe#2 — Dec. 9

More than 25 cm of snow fell overnight, and more than 15 cm piled up over the course of the day, causing mayhem in the pipe and delaying the second World Cup halfpipe event scheduled for Whistler by one whole day. The morning’s qualifying runs were thrown out, and on Dec. 9 all the competitors started with a clean slate.

It was a good thing, too. Canadians went on to win four out of six medals on Sunday, which is the best performance by a national team in history. Incredibly the men swept the podium and put two other athletes in the top 20.

Although Tommy Czeschin had to go back to the U.S. to take part in a Grand Prix event that would help decide who would represent the States at the Olympics, the field was as strong as your ever going to see at a World Cup.

Daniel Migneault, who was sixth after his first run, decided the pressure was off and took some chances on his second. He went huge and was the only athlete in the contest to receive a perfect score of 10.0 for amplitude.

The run put him in first, and within reach of the Olympics.

Although the snow had let up, a fog prompted the judges to shorten the length of the pipe. Competitors were judged on three of four jumps instead of around six, so the high-flying Canadians were already at an advantage.

"The pipe was great and you could make much more speed than two days ago," said Migneault. "I took the first run to check my line and find the right spots to do three or four tricks so I knew where to put them in the second run. It paid off."

Morisset was in first after a huge first run, but had to settle for second behind Migneault.

"I’m happy to be on the podium again, but to be honest I was going for the win," said Morisset. "I tried to put the tricks together but it’s a bit tough to get it done in a much shorter pipe. However, I don’t think they had a lot of options so it was all right to make that decision."

Mike Michalchuk, ranked fourth after the first run, completed the first French triple ever in World Cup history to take the bronze medal.

"It’s great to see three Canadians on the podium," he said. "This makes our Olympic battle a bit harder now."

Whistler locals David Melancon, Jesse Kumlea and Justin Lamoureux were eighth, 14 th and 18 th respectively to round out the men’s side.

Yoko Miyake and Michiyo Hashimoto of Japan took the top two spots in the women’s halfpipe competition, but Dominque Vallee hung in to finish third for Canada.

"The changed format obviously favoured the Canadians but it was the same for everyone," she said.

Maelle Ricker once again finished fifth. Whistler local Mercedes Nicoll, who just turned 18 and is in her rookie year on the World Cup tour, was 10th. Natasza Zurek was 13 th .

The two halfpipe competitions altered the World Cup leader board significantly.

Reigning world champion Magnus Sterner of Sweden held on to his lead, but a pair of Canadians who weren’t even in the top 10 before Whistler moved into the top five: Daniel Migneault moved into third behind Fenandez Iker of Spain, and Guillaume Morisset moved into fourth. Michalchuk moved into seventh overall. David Melancon, who is only on the national development team, is currently ranked 11 th in the world. Trevor Andrew is 16 th .

With Brett Carpentier already qualified for the Olympics, and taking the Whistler events off to rest his back, that leaves just three open spots in the Olympics.

Lori Glazier moved into eighth in the world, just 40 competition points up on Natasza Zurek (ninth), and 50 up on Dominique Vallee (10 th ). Maelle Ricker (11 th ) is also within 90 points of Glazier. Because of Olympic restrictions, the Canadian team will only be able to take two athletes to Salt Lake City.

Parallel Giant Slalom — Dec. 10

Jasey Jay Anderson had the gold medal in his sight, and was well ahead of Kosir Dejan when he lost an edge and crashed in the parallel giant slalom final.

"It was going good," said the 26 year old Anderson. "I thought I had it all wrapped up. I think I was holding back that mistake all day and it caught up to me. It was a nice, clean course, but Whistler always gets me on that fresh bank of powder waiting for me after the gate.

"Once in a while I’ll have that turn where if you push it too hard you have a release that’s too aggressive and you’ll end up in that soft stuff."

Kosir knows how close he came to ending up with the silver.

"We were together in the second pitch, but I started very high in one turn and came out in the powder and almost crashed but stopped it in time. When I got over the pitch I saw that he had crashed because he was really fast and I knew I needed to get to the end," said Kosir, who claimed the yellow leader’s bib with his performance.

Siegfried Grabner of Austria beat Simone Salvati in the Small Final to finish third and fourth.

Jerome Sylvestre was the only other Canadian to qualify, and finished the day 14 th .

In the women’s race, Karine Ruby of France took the top spot ahead of teammate Julie Pomagalski. Aasa Windahl of Sweden and Doris Guenther of Austria were third and fourth.

No Canadian women qualified for this event.

Big Air — Dec. 11

The Finnish contingent swept the Big Air competition, taking the top three podium spots. Jukka Eratuli was first with a combined score of 53.3 for his best two jumps, a couple of switch backside 720s. Teammates Risto Mattila and Antti Autti were second and third with scores of 49.8 and 49.6.

The next three jumpers were all Canadians, led by Josh Chapman at 49.2. Jesse Fox was fifth with a 48.0, and Chris Brown sixth with a 45.0.