Canadian snowboarder, skiers capture silver at world championships

ASPEN, Colo. — A trio of Canadians captured silver medals at the freestyle ski and snowboarding world championships on Friday. 

Rachel Karker of Erin, Ont., fell in her first run of the day in the freeski halfpipe event, but finished second after her final run scored 91.75 points. 

It’s the first world championship medal for Karker. She finished fourth in 2019. 

“It’s definitely a relief landing a solid run. I am really happy to come back after falling in my first run and getting onto the podium,” said Karker.

“It was really soft today, it makes it easy to hook an edge and not be able to get out, it was a little tricky but I was able to handle it in my second and third runs.”

China’s Eileen Gu took gold in Friday’s event and Great Britain’s Zoe Atkin came third.

Calgary’s Amy Fraser did not qualify for the final and finished ninth overall. 

On the men’s side, Simon d’Artois won silver in freeski halfpipe with 91.25 points. 

The skier from Whistler, B.C., finished behind Nico Porteous of New Zealand, and American Birk Irving came third. 

“I’m happy to be back and to see the work and time that I put into coming back stronger from my injury pay off,” said d’Artois. “It definitely gives me confidence for the year to come and lots of relief.”

Calgary’s Brendan MacKay was seventh and Noah Bowman finished ninth. 

Snowboarder Sebastien Toutant of L’Assomption, Que., took second in the men’s competition with 82.53 points. 

Norway’s Marcus Kleveland won gold with 90.66 and Finland’s Rene Rinnekangas was third.

Max Parrot of Bromont, Que., was sixth, Mark McMorris of Regina was 42nd and Liam Brearley of Gravenhurst, Ont., was 46th.

Toutant won gold in big air at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics and was 11th in slopestyle.

Zoi Sadowski Synnott of New Zealand won the women’s slopestyle event Friday.

Laurie Blouin of Quebec City was 12th, Brooke Voigt of Fort McMurray, Alta., was 13th and Jasmine Baird of Georgetown, Ont., was 22nd.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 12, 2021.

The Canadian Press