SNOWBOARDING:

Stone goes big to win silver at snowboard worlds

Jan. 15, 2011 — Canada Snowboard

BARCELONA, Spain ― Canadian snowboarder Zach Stone of Collingwood, Ontario, won the silver medal in the big-air contest as the 2011 FIS Snowboard World Championships kicked off in Barcelona, Spain.

By winning the silver medal, Stone became the first Canadian to win a medal in the big-air discipline at a FIS World Championships since its addition to the program in 2003.

“Today was a super-cool day. I came out here expecting to make the finals, which was my goal. That was a pretty good achievement and I’m stoked. It means a lot, obviously, it’s the world champs,” said Stone.

“It’s pretty cool [to be the first Canadian to medal in big air at worlds]. I’m stoked, I am sure my parents are really proud. It’s good to be back as it was my first FIS contest in a while,” said Stone after his historic accomplishment. “This is my first season back competing [after taking two years off]. I did a couple of other events prior, but not too many.”

Stone tied for second with Seppe Smits of Belgium, scoring 48.9 points, but Stone was awarded the silver medal due to the tiebreaker rule that rewards the highest second-best score of the three runs.

Stone, the only Canadian to advance to the finals, qualified fourth in his heat with a score of 26.9 points.

Finland’s Petja Piiroinen won the gold medal with a scoring 51.7 points.

In his first two runs, Stone did a backside double cork 1260, and then went on to land a backside double cork 1080 in the final run.

Stone, at only 19, is coached by Jesse Fulton and regularly competed on the Swatch TTR World Tour with “Team Icarus Shreducation” before his break.

Stone was pleased to have Fulton in Barcelona: “We definitely have a lot of history together. He gives me a lot of inspiration and he’s a super good dude. It was nice to have him out today.”

“Zach was my first student ever. He’s the kid why I started Shreducation. It all started as I was helping a friend coaching, and his father recognized me, and came to me and asked me to give Zach a few pointers,” said Fulton. “He’s won marquee events in the past. He took two years and chilled out. We’re trying to work him and get him ready for the 2014 [Olympic] Games.

“He’s just a really relaxed kid. He doesn’t take anything for granted, and he’s pretty simple. He’s one of those naturally gifted riders in the country. I’ve always said he’ll be one of Canada’s greatest snowboarding achievements.”

Stone will also compete in the slopestyle contest, held next Saturday at La Molina, Spain.

More than 8,000 tickets were sold for the event, held inside Barcelona’s Olympic stadium.

Harrison Gray of Newmarket, Ont., finished 14th, while Julien Beaulieu of Lac Beauport, Que., was 29th. Alexandre Leblanc of Beaupré, Que. finished 36th.

Canada’s performance objective at the World Championships is to win at least four medals.

The 2011 World Championships continues on Monday with the snowboardcross qualifiers, with the finals being held on Tuesday. All eyes will then be on Dominique Maltais and Maëlle Ricker, respectively ranked first and second in the FIS World Cup standings.

CBC is broadcasting all the World Championships events live on bold and live streaming on www.cbcsports.ca.

S-Magazine