The Canadian snowboard team wrapped up its international season with a stellar performance at the Nokia Snowboard FIS World Cup finals last weekend at Furano, Japan.
The first event was the snowboardcross on Friday, where Dominique Maltais earned her second gold medal of the season as well as the overall snowboardcross title.
Her win came just one week after Swedish rider Jonatan Johansson was killed in training for a Lake Placid snowboardcross. All of the athletes wore black ribbons to honour Johansson, who died of internal injuries after crashing to the ground off a jump on an icy course. The Lake Placid event was cancelled.
"Everything went well right from the start," said Maltais of her day. "In the final I went for broke. I was fast from top to bottom.
"After the Olympics it wasn’t easy to hit the road again and get motivated to compete, especially after a rider died last week in the U.S."
Along with another gold medal, Maltais is heading home to Quebec with the World Cup globe, and a bronze medal from the first ever Olympic snowboardcross.
"I can’t ask for a better (season)," she said. "Now I’m anxious to get home."
Lindsey Jacobellis of the U.S. was second in the last heat while Sandra Frei was third. Whistler’s Maëlle Ricker finished fourth, and ended her season ranked second overall in snowboardcross.
Erin Simmons of West Vancouver also qualified for the World Cup finals, where she finished 14 th .
In the men’s snowboardcross final, Michal Novotny of Czech Republic won his first gold of the season, followed by Marco Huser of Switzerland, and Jasey Jay Anderson of Mont Tremblant. Anderson’s 600 points also put him on top of the snowboardcross standings for the third time. He now has three career snowboardcross globes, and seven globes in snowboarding.
"In the final I battled hard for third place," said Anderson. "I was fourth most of the race, until the last jump where I was able to get by my rival who was continually blocking me. I was expecting at best a top-eight today.
"I was good enough this season to win the globe but it wasn’t a great season. One win, two medals, isn’t very good. There was a different winner in each race this season. I was the most consistent among the inconsistent."
Anderson also wrapped up his season by voicing a few complaints about the way the sport is going. Riders complaining about being bumped, elbowed and nudged out by other riders who are getting away with it.
"Snowboardcross is a very emotional race. Several younger riders are arrogant and need a dose of humble pie," said Anderson. "After each race, someone is complaining. That’s what ruins the season. I tried to play by the rules at the start of the season. In this sport you don’t want to cause trouble. You mind your business and ride as fast as you can.
"I realized that once the race starts you have no friends. And I’ll tell you I have no friends. Put all that together and I had difficult days."
Drew Neilson of Vancouver was sixth in the last day of racing, and second overall in the standings. Tom Velisek of Vernon was eighth and Francois Boivin 16 th .
In the halfpipe on Saturday, Whistler’s Crispin Lipscomb finished first, ahead of Takahiro Ishihara of Japan and Jan Michaelis of Germany. It was Lipscomb’s first gold medal in a World Cup event.
"I have won a World Cup, I can not believe it," he told Transworld Snowboarding. "It’s unbelievable. I risked so much in the second run because I didn’t want to end up as second or third again."
Jan Michealis won the globe that goes with the season’s halfpipe title.
Dan Raymond, another Whistler rider, landed his best World Cup result to date, finishing fourth.
Also in the top 10, Kory Wright of Calgary was sixth, Whistler’s Justin Lamoureux seventh, and Ontario’s Jeff Batchelor eighth.
In the women’s halfpipe Mercedes Nicoll and Dominique Vallée of Whistler cracked the top-10, finishing eighth and 10 th respectively. Sarah Conrad was 14 th and Maëlle Ricker 15 th .
Manuela Laura Pesko of Switzerland won the gold medal and the World Cup halfpipe globe. She was followed by Japanese riders Soko Yamaoka and Shiho Nakashima.
The last event was the parallel giant slalom. Daniel Biveson of Sweden won the men’s event, edging past Andreas Prommegger in a snowy final. Heinz Inniger of Switzerland was third.
Jasey Jay Anderson was sixth, his best result in a disappointing racing season.
For the women, Daniela Meuli of Switzerland, Julia Dujmovits of Austria and Michelle Gorgone of the U.S. were first through third, and Meuli claimed the globe for the PGS title. Richmond’s Alexa Loo was seventh, and finished her season 13 th in the PGS standings.
The men’s globe went to Simon Schoch of Switzerland.
The Canadian team’s World Cup season may be over, but the team will be racing in the national championships at Avila, Quebec this weekend.
