SNOWBOARDING:

Canada’s Calvé 4th in PGS at Valmalenco

March 19, 2011 — Canada Snowboard     ♦ Video by Infront Sports & Media/FIS
 

VALMALENCO, Italy — Caroline Calvé of Montreal, Que., came close to stepping onto the podium for the first time this season in the parallel giant slalom race at the LG Snowboard FIS World Cup in Valmalenco, Italy, finishing in fourth place for the second consecutive time this season in parallel giant slalom.

The previous parallel giant slalom race was held at Stoneham, Que., where Calvé also stood at the doorstep of the podium in fourth place in front of the family, friends and fans.

In Saturday’s competition, Calvé was leading her opponent, Julia Dujmovits of Austria, in the bronze-medal duel with the maximum penalty of 1.5 seconds, but Dujmovits caught up to Calvé at the finish line and both riders finished tied, with 0.00 differential showing on the clock.

“She rode really well all day — until the bronze-medal race. Caroline had the advantage of the full penalty heading in the second run, and just gave it away. I am happy with the way she rode, certainly, but not of the results. The results should be better than that with the full penalty. Mistakes like those are really tough to accept and digest,” said Sylvain Jean, head coach of the Canadian team.

In FIS tiebreaking rules, the third place went to Dujmovits, who had to come from behind.

Ekatarina Tudegesheva of Russia won the gold medal, beating Isabella Laboeck of Germany in the gold-medal dual. Tudegesheva is having a stellar season, with six wins in the parallel events (slalom, giant slalom) and three wins in four starts in the parallel giant slalom. She earned the crystal globe in the parallel races, along with the overall speed crystal globe awarded to the best rider in both parallel events and snowboardcross.

Ariane Lavigne, of Mont-Tremblant narrowly missed qualifying to the elimination rounds, finishing 18th, her career’s best result on the World Cup tour.

Ekatarina Zavialova of Calgary, Alberta, finished in 34th, while Marianne Lesson of Burlington, Ontario, finished in 38th position.

In men’s action, Sylvain Dufour of France topped the podium, defeating Andreas Promegger of Austria in the gold-medal duel. Dufour captures his first World Cup victory and third podium in 113 World Cup starts. Roland Haldi of Switzerland went on to win the bronze medal.

No Canadians were qualified for the elimination rounds.

Michael Lambert finished 26th, followed by Matthew Carter in 28th place, Darren Gardner in 32nd place, Steve Barlow in 36th place. Matthew Morison was disqualified in his first qualifying run.

The top snowboard athletes will now make their way to Arosa, Switzerland, for the 2011 LG Snowboard FIS World Cup Finals, featuring halfpipe, parallel giant slalom and the snowboardcross.