FREESTYLE:

André, Guérin tops Nor-Am aerials podium at Apex

Dec. 19, 2010 — CFSA

PENTICTON, B.C. — It was an auspicious start to the aerials Nor-Am season Saturday under difficult course conditions with Canadian aerialists taking most of the hardware in men’s and women’s competition at Apex Mountain Resort.

Heavy snowfall between training and competition jumps made it very difficult for the competitors to accurately gauge their speed on takeoff, but that brought out the fighting spirit of the Canadian team, which managed to earn five medals.

On the men’s side, Ville St-Laurent, Quebec’s Jean-Christophe André took home the gold at 213.99 points. He was joined on the podium by teammates Travis Gerrits at 198.80 points and Rémi Bélanger at 187.62.

“It was awesome to be on the podium with my teammates,” said André. “We talked about a sweep earlier in the week. It was a good goal and we achieved it.”

Saturday’s win, and a personal-best score, was especially sweet for André, who sat out of competition last season after having surgery on his right shoulder. He said, “I wasn’t too certain of my return to competition, so it’s really motivating for me for the rest of my season.”

Gerrits, who injured his shoulder earlier in the season and was able to perform only doubles Saturday, was also very happy with his performance, as was coach Nicolas Fontaine, who said, “Travis succeeded in performing two amazing jumps with very high scores.”

Jonathan Vellner of Red Deer, Ont., was seventh at 155.59.

On the women’s side, Sabrina Guérin of Laval, Que., was first at 147.40. Alison Lee of the U.S. took second spot at 126.47, and Quebec City’s Stéphanie Pratte was third at 113.26.

For Guerin, the win was bittersweet. “For sure it’s nice to be first, but I would have liked to achieve better scores. Today was not my best jumping and especially not my best form in the air.”

Guérin attributed her troubles to a terrible pre-competition training session where she didn’t land a single jump and the difficult conditions on the jump site.

Crystal Lee of Newmarket, Ont., finished the day in sixth position with a score of 104.92.

Nor-Am aerials competition continues with a second event Sunday.  S-Magazine