(Beaupré) Eliot Grondin beat Austrian Jakub Dusek and Spaniard Lucas Eguibar to win the Mont-Ste-Anne Snowboard Cross World Cup and thus sign his first victory of the season.
The Quebecer led almost from start to finish in this final race of the day. This victory allows him to jump four places in the World Cup standings and now rank fourth with 339 points, 71 less than the German Martin Nörl, fifth on Saturday.
British Columbian Evan Bichon, the only other Canadian to qualify for the playoffs, saw his run come to an end in the quarter-finals. He finished the competition in 12th place.
Among the ladies, Audrey McManiman did not have the expected day. The snowboarder from St-Ambroise-de-Kildare was involved in a fall with Frenchwoman Manon Petit-Lenoir, an incident for which she received a yellow card.
Although she crossed the line third in her wave of the round of 16, this collision relegated her to last place in the round of 16, in 16th place.
It was Britain’s Charlotte Bankes who won the event after a frenzied final. Long fourth in this final, she beat Frenchwoman Chloé Trespeuch and Americans Lindsey Jacobellis and Faye Gulini to win a sixth race in a row.
Bankes obviously occupies first place in the general classification at 678 points, 88 better than Trespeuch. McManiman is in 12th place, at 166 points.
All these emotions will quickly have to be forgotten, because the whole set has an appointment on Sunday, for the last World Cup of the season.