SNOWBOARDING:

Anderson wins final PGS, Ricker takes overall title

March 21, 2010 — SRC Staff Report     ►Photo: Jasey-Jay Anderson (Agence Zoom)        

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LA MOLINA, Spain — Canadian Olympic champion Jasey-Jay Anderson won the final snowboard World Cup of the season Sunday, a parallel giant slalom, ahead of fellow Canadian Matthew Morison, to close out his career in fitting style.

Benjamin Karl of Austria and Maëlle Ricker of Canada clinched the overall snowboard World Cup titles after the season-ending competition.

“This is the way I want to finish my career,” Anderson, 34, said in a postrace conference call. “This was THE year and it will be impossible to beat. It was a beautiful way to end it. It took be 16 years to get here.”

It was the 61st career podium for the Quebec athlete, and 27th career victory. The win moved him into third in the season PGS standings.

“Usually when I win the qualifiers it is a good sign. I’m like a diesel engine and it takes me a while to warm up,” Anderson said.

Morison earned the 11th podium of his career but the first since an elbow injury in December.

“I came back pretty strong but it was tough. To be honest, breaking my arm didn’t hurt as much as not getting on the podium at the Olympics. I was 90 percent at the Olympics so I have no excuses, I was good enough to race then ... that was a really tough one for me to take.”

Of his head-to-head finals against his teammate, Anderson said, “In the first run my binding broke and I was in the fast course, so that was that. So for the second run I just really poured it on and I was able to reel him (Morison) in about halfway down. Then he made a mistake and I was able to cruise to the finish.”

“I joked that I wanted to be the one that retired him,” Morison said with a laugh. “It was almost like it was meant to be. He’s been like a big brother to me, I’ve learned a lot. ... I’ve learned to really appreciate the moment. He’s been a teammate that has always been there for me.”

Karl finished fifth, but was guaranteed the overall title since his closest challenger Pierre Vaultier of France — a snowboardcross specialist — didn’t compete.

Ricker didn’t race but added the women’s title to the gold she won in Vancouver.

Ricker’s 5,290 points were 90 better than Nicolien Sauerbreij, who finished sixth Sunday. Austria’s Doris Guenther lost to Ekaterina Tudegesheva in the final to trail Ricker by 180 points.

Anderson said family, not podiums, will be his focus. “The wife is probably dreading the idea of having me around all the time, but she’ll get used to it,” Anderson joked. “I’m looking forward to being at home more and to have projects at home with my family. Whenever I’d leave home and my girls, I was sad to the point of depression. I’m done with that.”

He won’t leave the sport behind, though. Anderson plans to stay active in snowboarding from a non-competitor’s standpoint.

“I’m actually working on a new discipline for alpine,” he said. “I want a style of boardercross event but not the same features and slow-moving Wu-Tangs. These courses take a lot of snow and cause way too many injuries. ‘Alpine cross’ features would be way more toned down with more action and more stuff and more congestions in sections and better passing sections. More like a GS where you create speed on the back side. It would be super-safe and very entertaining. I'm at ground zero right now, but I want to present this (to FIS).”  SRC

— SRC's Gordie Bowles and The Canadian Press contributed to this report

La Molina men’s World Cup PGS results

La Molina women’s World Cup PGS results