Canada's Sébastien Toutant claims gold at men's snowboard slopestyle World Cup in Calgary
Laurie Blouin posts impressive 2nd run to grab bronze in women's event
Canada's Sébastien Toutant posted the two best runs of the day to win gold in the men's snowboard slopestyle World Cup in Calgary on Saturday.
Toutant, of L'Assomption, Que., an Olympic champion at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games, scored 86.86 in his second run to secure the victory.
With Toutant included, five accomplished Canadian snowboarders — Mark McMorris, Max Parrot, Liam Brearley and Darcy Sharpe — are fighting for four Olympic spots in the slopestyle and big air events.
"The Olympics are coming up really quick and every result is really important for me right now," Toutant said. "To come up with the win today, it feels so special, especially to snowboard in Canada. We don't get to compete in Canada that much. So, yeah, today was a good day."
WATCH l Sebastien Toutant captures gold in World Cup snowboard slopestyle competition:
None have reached the podium in two big air World Cup events this season. Calgary's Snow Rodeo represents the first of three slopestyle events on the schedule before Beijing 2022.
Mons Roisland of Norway had an 84.50 effort in his second run for silver. Luke Winkelmann of the U.S. took bronze having achieved an 83.20 score in his first go.
McMorris finished 1.24 shy of a podium place in fourth.
Blouin gets bronze medal on 2nd run
In the women's event, Laurie Blouin captured bronze for her first World Cup podium since winning gold on the same hill in 2020.
The 2018 Olympic silver medallist and two-time world champion, missed one landing in her first run but recovered in the second to achieve 75.73 points.
"I'm just glad that I put it down when it counts," said Blouin, the only Canadian in the eight-woman final. "I did a little mistake but I'm glad I'm on the podium on home soil. It's not the run I really wanted because of that little mistake, but I'm still happy that it got me third."
WATCH l Laurie Blouin earns bronze in World Cup snowboard slopestyle:
Kokomo Murase (77.58) and Miyabi Onitsuka (77.18), both from Japan, claimed gold and silver, respectively.
With files from The Canadian Press
