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Sports Briefs

Terrain Park gets $60,000 in upgrades

Whistler-Blackcomb Terrain Parks are widely recognized as being the best in the world, repeatedly winning awards and recognition from magazines like Transworld Snowboarding. Between Whistler and Blackcomb there are five parks, three halfpipes, a snowboardcross course, and a wide range of lines, jumps, rails, boxes and other features that range from Small for beginners to Extra Large for the most experienced riders and skiers. Because of the size of the parks, riders can hit over a dozen features on a single run.

This week Whistler-Blackcomb has announced plans to upgrade the park’s rail collection with $60,000 of new features, bringing the total of rails and boxes to over 75 pieces. The new rails include a double barrel shotgun, a 15 metre single barrel, a 10 metre flat kink down, a 10 metre flat down box, a 5 metre by 10 metre wall ride with a roller coaster box on top, and a swing set rail.

All of the new features will be added to the park this coming winter.

 

Skate contest, concert to raise money for new association

On Thursday, Sept. 28, the newly formed Whistler Skateboard Association will be holding a fundraiser at the Longhorn Saloon, featuring three bands and a street rail contest in the village.

The setup will be open the public from 5 to 7 p.m., and the contest will run from 7 to 9 p.m. with top local skaters facing off for cash, prizes and applause. There will be three categories of first place prizes with $200 cash purses for the rider or riders pulling the best trick on the rail, ledges and stairs. There will be prizes for second and third place, as well as schwag giveaways for the crowd and a raffle for items like complete skateboard setups from local shops.

Entertainment for the fundraiser includes the video premiere of The Peanut Gallery, a locally produced skate film, followed by music from Wes Makepeace, The Fall of Summer and Vinyl Ritchie.

The Whistler Skateboard Association was created to represent the interests of skateboarders in the community, to promote skateboarding and skate culture, and to help build and maintain facilities like the underground skatepark in Creekside. There will be information on the Creekside Park, as well as an expansion to the village park.

 

Rubble Creek Classic on Sunday

The 22 nd annual Rubble Creek Classic trail run takes place this Sunday, Sept. 24, covering 25 km of mountain trails and alpine terrain.

The race starts at the Cheakamus Lake parking lot and follows the Helm Creek trail through Garibaldi Provincial Park to the Taylor Meadows-Garibaldi Lake trails around the back of Black Tusk. Almost 800 metres of vertical is gained and 1,100 vertical lost as athletes finish up in the Black Tusk parking lot downhill of Whistler.

Times ranged from two hours, 13 minutes, 30 seconds for 2005 winner Scott Pass, to over four and a half hours.

To register, contact Escape Route at 604-938-3228. Pre-registration is recommended as the event has been capped at 75 participants to reduce wear and tear on the trails.

The run also starts at 7:30 a.m. to minimize the impact on other people using the park.

The Rubble Creek Classic is the second-last event in the Sea 2 Sky Trail Running Series. The last event, which will determine overall rankings, is the 12 km Lumpy’s Epic Run in Pemberton on Oct. 14. For more information visit www.s2srun.com.

 

Pemberton Barrel Racer tops province

Pemberton’s Elaina Black, a competitive rodeo rider who qualified for the Calgary Stampede in July, took part in the B.C. Barrel Racing finals this past weekend, winning the title by two one thousandths of a second.

Her horse, Mita, is unique in that he’s been partly blinded in one eye after an incident with a pitchfork and sometimes has trouble seeing the first barrel.

In barrel racing, the only women’s rodeo event, riders speed onto a course and do a clover leaf pattern around three barrels before riding back out the way they came. Riders’ times are so close — and there were 255 women in the provincials — that electronic devices are used to time riders to within a thousandth of a second.

The championship gives her a guaranteed spot in the Calgary Stampede again next year. She finished out of the prize money at the Stampede this year, but another B.C. rider and friend of Black’s claimed the $100,000 first prize.