It took a bit of waiting to see which teammate bested the other.
Vernon’s Tate Garrod collected gold for Team B.C. in men’s freestyle skiing’s slopestyle discipline Wednesday, Feb. 22, at the Canada Winter Games in Prince Edward Island.
Garrod completed his two championship runs and took his best score of 85.83, which came after a lengthy deliberation from judges. He edged out teammate Aiden Mulvihill of Squamish, who carded an 84.67 from the judges.
“I was just kind of reviewing back through the runs and what tricks were done,” said Garrod to Team B.C.’s communications squad after the event. “We got gold and silver. So, I‘m really stoked.”
“The first run I did, I kind of messed it up,” said Mulvihill of his 72.67 score. “So, I had to improvise. Coming into the second run, I thought, ‘let‘s just go out and have fun and try my best.’”
Jeremy Gagné of Quebec won the bronze with a score of 81.17. The medal winners had the top three scores in the same order in Tuesday’s qualification runs.
Slopestyle skiing is a type of freestyle skiing in which the person skis or snowboards down a course that has different types of obstacles along the way. The main types of obstacles on the slope are jumps and rails, while the tricks performed by the athlete fall into four main categories: spins, grabs, grinds and flips.
In slopestyle competition, the focus is on the technical aspects over speed.
Gagné won gold the day before in the Big Air event with a score of 95.80. Garrod just missed making the podium, finishing fourth with a score of 89.40 the day prior. Manitoba’s Rowan Parnell won bronze with a score of 90.20.
Mulvihill was fifth at 88.80.
• Vernon’s Sovereign Lake Nordic Development Academy can boast three medal winners in biathlon at the Games thus far.
Molly Caldwell of Golden was golden in the 7.5 km female pursuit, covering the course and shooting targets in 28 minutes 41.5 seconds. Caldwell won silver in the 6 km female sprint and completed a B.C. sweep of the medals in the 10 km individual race, taking bronze behind teammates Mia Rodger of North Vancouver (gold) and Jessabelle Trelenberg of Williams Lake (silver).
Sebastian Solomonson of Kamloops won silver in the men’s 12.5 km individual race. He was 17th in the 7.5 km sprint and 21st in the 10 km pursuit.
Liam Simons from Prince George won bronze in the men’s 10 km pursuit. He was fifth in the 7.5 km sprint and 10th in the 12.5 km individual race.
Vernon’s Parker Munroe was sixth in the men’s 10 km pursuit, seventh in the 12.5 km individual event and 18th in the 7.5 km sprint.
• Vernon’s Hudson Kibblewhite and Team B.C. take on Manitoba Thursday night, Feb. 23, in a men’s hockey quarterfinal.
Kibblewhite had two assists in B.C.’s 4-2 preliminary round win over previously unbeaten Alberta. B.C. has compiled a 2-1 record.
The Games run until March 5.
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roger@vernonmorningstar.com
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