Jeff Batchelor emerges with silver
Montreal February 23, 2008 (Sportcom) – Jeff Batchelor of Oakville, Ont., won the silver medal Saturday in the men’s halfpipe at World Cup snowboarding competition at Gujo-Gifu, Japan.
It was Batchelor’s second career World Cup medal. In February 2007, he won gold at Sungwoo, South Korea. He came close to victory on Saturday finishing within 1.1 points of victor Kazuumi Fujita.
In the final, Batchelor collected 41.1 points on his first run while Fujita took the gold with a 42.2 mark on his second run. Gregory Bretz of the U.S., was third at 38.7.
‘’This is wonderful, even though I’m a little banged up,’’ said Batchelor, who didn’t finish his second run.
The event was held in a snowstorm.
‘’When we got here this morning I knew it was going to be a difficult day. It wasn’t easy with the snow. But I’m from Ontario, so the conditions were familiar. Maybe that’s why I did so well.’’
Justin Lamoureux of Squamish, B.C., also reached the final and finished fourth at 37.5. It capped a successful trip for Lamoureux, also sixth at this season’s Sungwoo stop last Saturday.
Gabriel Dussault of Donnacona, Que., missed a berth in the final by 0.2 points ranking seventh in the second round of qualifying. The top-six from each qualifying round advanced to the final.
Dussault wound up 13th overall while compatriots Crispin Lipscomb, Brendan Davis, Ryan Bausch and Charles Reid were respectively 17th, 28th, 31st and 37th.
Iouri Podladtchikov of Switzerland remains the halfpipe World Cup leader ahead of Ryoh Aono of Japan. Lamoureux jumped from 15th to seventh while Batchelor is 11th.
No Canadians in women’s final
In women’s competition, no Canadians advanced to the final.
Katie Tsuyuki of Squamish was 10th in qualifying which was a career best World Cup result. Charmaine Ironside was 12th, Dominique Vallée 13th, Sarah Conrad 15th, and Alexandra Duckworth 20th.
Zhifeng Sun of China won the gold medal with 34.3 points. Soko Yamaoka of Japan was second at 32.9 and Manuela Laura Pesko of Switzerland third at 32.2.
‘’This was very good preparation for the events in Calgary and Stoneham’’’ said Canadian national team coach Tom Hutchinson.
Canadian entries for Sunday’s parallel giant slalom are Caroline Calvé, Alexa Loo, Kimiko Zakreski, Jasey-Jay Anderson, Patrick Farrell, Michael Lambert and Matthew Morison.
|
Published by CSF: 10:29 AM
|
