FREESTYLE:

Aerialists Guerin, Gerrits achieve personal bests at Mont Gabriel

Jan. 16, 2011 — CFSA     ♦ Photo: Travis Gerrits (Mike Ridewood, CFSA); Video by Infront Sports & Media/FIS
 

STE. ADELE, Quebec ― Personal-best results for Sabrina Guerin and Travis Gerrits were the highlights of Canada’s aerials day here Sunday at the Canada Post Grand Prix at Ski Mont Gabriel.

Guerin finished the day with her highest score ever, 171.60, and a fifth-place position. Gerrits made it to his first World Cup final and finished the day in 10th spot at 217. 69.

In the women’s division, Chinese jumpers Mengtao Xu and Shuang Cheng took the gold and bronze medals, respectively, with scores of 192.28 and 186.99. They bookended Belarus’s Alia Tsuper, who performed the only triple backflip of the women’s category and finished the day at 187.00.

Guerin, who has a lower degree of difficulty to her jumps than many of her competitors, was thrilled with her result, which bested her previous top score by more than eight points. She explained, “It’s really hard to podium with the jumps I’m doing, but my plan for this winter is to consistently land my jumps, that’s what I’m working on. I did that today, so I’m really happy.”

Guerin also said the hometown crowd might have given her the boost she needed today. “I think today being here with my family and my friends at the bottom brought me good energy and made it easier to perform.”

Other Canadian women in the competition were Stephanie Pratte and Crystal Lee, both of whom failed to advance to finals and finished the day in 17th and 19th positions, respectively.

On the men’s side, it was Gerrits who held the Canadian hopes after all of his teammates, including team veteran Warren Shouldice, failed to advance to the final.

Unfortunately, a deep landing on his second jump kept Gerrits off the podium, but he was still thrilled with his first World Cup finals performance. Gerrits said, “Today I was looking to put two good jumps together and I did. I was a little bit backseat on my landing in finals, I didn’t touch, but I still got docked a lot of points for that. As my career grows, I’ll get more experience and that will allow me to step it up for next time.”

Last season’s points leader, Anton Kushnir of Belarus, took the gold medal in the men’s division with a score of 247.60. China’s Guangpu Qi was second at 240.97 and Stanislav Kravchuk was third at 234.60.

Canadian men who did not advance to the finals finished as follows: Rémi Bélanger 16th; Jonathan Vellner 28th; Shouldice 32nd; Jean-Christophe André 37th and Samel Bélanger-Dallaire 38th.

The World Cup moves to Lake Placid, N.Y., next weekend for two single moguls and an aerials event. S-Magazine

Mont Gabriel men's World Cup aerials results

Mont Gabriel women's World Cup aerials results