Two Canadian snowboarders won bronze medals Thursday as the LG Snowboard FIS World Cup arrived in the U.S. at Sunday River, Maine. The podium results in parallel giant slalom marked Canada's 13th and 14th medals of the current World Cup snowboarding season. Alexa Loo of Richmond, BC won the bronze medal in the women's race, edging out Claudia Riger of Austria.
“Somehow I am just in a better head space here. Race conditions were awesome. The snow was great, the organization was awesome, and we had better training,” said Loo, winning her second career World Cup medal. “I tried to do the same run every run in the ladder. For me the goal was drop the hammer and ride.”
Amelie Kober of Germany won the gold, defeating Japanese rider Tomako Takeuchi. New England's own Michelle Gorgone (Boston, MA) finished sixth.
"I felt good all day," Gorgone said. "Sometimes you go into a course and it's made for you and you're blowing people away and sometimes you're just well matched. Today I was well matched. It was definitely within reach, but I wasn't blowing anyone away."
Gorgone took a turn too wide and went out in the second run of the quarterfinals.
As far as U.S. Snowboarding Alpine Head Coach Steve Persons is concerned, Thursday's race is going to be a positive thing for Gorgone.
"I think it was a step in the right direction for her. She's started to pick up her top end speed, so we've had some good results for her," Persons said.
"I got a little off balance and started going toward the fence and never went back the other direction where I was supposed to go," Gorgone said. "I felt good today but there's not much I can do now."
"I'd like to have seen her go another round just for her confidence, but I do think it will help in the next two races," Persons added.
The Men’s races saw defending World Champion Jasey-Jay Anderson of Mont-Tremblant, Quebec also grab the bronze medal, stepping on the podium for the 53rd time in his career. Benjamin Karl of Austria won his second consecutive parallel giant slalom, defeating his teammate Siegfreid Grabner. Karl now has five victories to his credit.
“It was a bit icy at the end of the course, but overall the equipment held on all day, and everything unfolded quite nicely. It was my mistake that cost me. I was too aggressive I was trying to revenge last week’s dual against Benjamin Karl, but that obviously didn’t work out,” Anderson said after the race.
No U.S. men made it past the qualification round.
"I think the guys are riding fast. Their top-end speed is there, it's just not making those few mistakes. Today there was no room for any mistakes." Persons said.
Action at the 2009 Visa U.S. Snowboarding Cup continues Friday with men's and women's snowboardcross qualifications.
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