Double gold for Canada in snowboard team events at World Para Snow Sports Championships

(Photos IPC)

LILLEHAMMER, Norway – Canada won the gold medal in both the men’s and women’s Para snowboard team events on Saturday at the World Para Snow Sports Championships.

Meanwhile, Para alpine skier Michaela Gosselin of Collingwood, Ont. added a bronze in the women’s standing slalom as Canada brought its medal total to 15 (three gold, six silver and six bronze).

In the men’s team snowboard, Tyler Turner of Calgary and Alex Massie of Barrie, Ont. saw their races get closer and closer through each round. Canada won its quarterfinal by 0.38 seconds, the semi by 2.65 seconds, and the final by a mere 0.96 seconds.

‘’Incredible, I’ve been chasing this one for eight years,’’ said Massie, also a silver medallist in the banked slalom last Friday at these championships. ‘’It’s so good to finally sing my national anthem.’’

Massie gave Canada a 0.55 lead over Japan in the first run, while Turner’s efforts in the second run proved impossible for Masataka Oiwane to match.

‘’I come from a hockey and a football background, so I’m used to having a teammate to rely on,’’ said Massie. ‘’It took a lot of the pressure off at the start gate knowing that if I mess up, [Tyler’s] got a chance to correct my mistakes, so it was a lot of fun.”

It was a third medal at these championships for Turner. He won Canada’s first gold of the competition on Friday in the men’s snowboard cross as well as a bronze in the banked slalom.

“That was fun to do it together. The team event is such a different feeling. To do it with a teammate and to celebrate together, it’s pretty awesome,” Turner said.

“This is a good way to go home.”

Japan was second and Great Britain third in the four-team final.

In the women’s team snowboard, Sandrine Hamel of St-Sauveur, Que. and Lisa DeJong of Saskatoon won by nearly four seconds over the Netherlands with Switzerland in third.

Hamel gave her teammate a 0.33-second lead after the first run, which DeJong extended to 3.39 seconds with her winning second run.

“It feels absolutely amazing. We’ve been waiting for this moment so to actually capture it has been so cool,” DeJong said.

It was the first world championships gold and third medal for DeJong, who earlier took silvers in the women’s SB-LL2 dual banked slalom and snowboard cross. Hamel won a bronze in the dual banked slalom.

“We’re racing separately so it’s fun to be able to team up and win the event,” Hamel said. “The boys did really good too so we’re really happy with how it ended up.”

In Para alpine skiing, Gosselin earned her first medal of these championships placing third in the women’s standing slalom. Ebba Aarajoe of Sweden was the winner followed by Varvara Voronchikhina of the Russian Paralympic Committee.

Katie Combaluzier of Toronto was fourth in the women’s sitting slalom.

Competition ends Sunday with the alpine skiing parallel event.

These worlds also feature Para nordic skiing (cross country and biathlon) but the Canadian Para nordic team decided to skip the event and pursue their training at home.

For more information, please visit the event’s official website at Paralympic.org/lillehammer-2021.

Live streaming of the competition is available via the International Paralympic Committee’s YouTube channel.