Porter MacLennan soars to silver, Baird claims bronze at the first World Cup of the season
Canadian freestyle skier Noah Porter MacLennan claimed silver and Team Canada snowboarder Jasmine Baird flew to bronze at the first event of the FIS Big Air Skiing and Snowboard World Cup season in Chur, Switzerland.
In the final of the skiing event on Friday, the Porter MacLennan accumulated a total of 180.00 points finishing behind the Birk Ruud of Norway who claimed gold with 188.75 points. American Troy Podmilsak took third place finishing 0.25 points behind the Canadian.
19 year old Porter MacLennan, showed great consistency throughout the final where the athletes performed three jumps scored out of 100. The best two jumps are then combined to determine the final ranking. He was fourth after his first jump which earned him a score of 82.50 points.
Turning up the heat during his second jump the Canadian threw down a jump earning him 90.00 points, allowing him to remain in fourth place. Staying consistent on his last attempt, he once again scored 90.00 points to climb the standings and take second place in the competition.
The women’s Ski Big Air final saw two Canadians take to the hill — Olivia Asselin and Megan Oldham. Asselin finished fourth in the competition. After a good first jump, she then struggled on her other two attempts, scoring less than 20 points on both. Oldham was unable to finish the competition after missing her first two jumps.
On Saturday over on the snowboarding front, Baird found herself on the podium at the end of her three runs. She sealed the deal with a cab double underflip weddle and a backside 720 weddle for a score of 131.25 to secure the bronze. Olympic champion in this event — Anna Gasser of Austria scored 164.75 points coming in behind Reira Iwabuchi of Japan who finished the competition with an impressive 180.75 points.
The next Big Air Snowboard World Cup will take place in Edmonton, Alberta on December 9-10, while the next Big Air Ski World Cup will take place on December 16 in Copper Mountain, USA.
