A local acclaimed Olympian has joined the Canada Snowboard 2019 FIS Snowboard World Championships team.
Kevin Hill, Canada’s top finisher in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi and quarter-finals competitor in PyeongChang’s 2018 Winter Olympics, has joined the snowboardcross ranks alongside Baptiste Brochu, Danny Bourgeois and Elliot Grondin, all of whom are from Quebec, Carle Brenneman of Comox and Meryeta O’Dine of Prince George.
Hill will hit Utah for the FIS World Championships Feb. 1-10.
Outside snowboardcross, Comox’ Darcy Sharpe, riding in the slopestyle/big air category, is the only other B.C. snowboard competitor.
Meanwhile, in freestyle ski World Cup circuit action, two Vernon skiers gave it their all in Font Romeu, France.
Noah Morrison and Patrick Dew took 30th and 48th, respectively, in the circuit.
Fellow Canadian Philippe Langevin, a 17-year-old freestyle skier from Quebec, earned his first career podium and took home silver.
Langevin skied to a score of 90.27 in his second run of the final, after collecting a total of 87.63 points in his first run. He was the only finalist to reach the 90-point mark aside from the winner, Alexander Hall of the United States (92.11). Switzerland’s Andri Ragettli followed in third place (89.06).
Langevin’s best career result in eight previous slopestyle events had been a 10th-place finish on Nov. 23, earlier this season in Stubai, Austria. He is presently taking part in his second season on the World Cup circuit.
“I can’t believe it — it’s insane. I wasn’t expecting this to come so fast, so I’m super stoked,” said Langevin. “I felt really good out there, I was able to do what I had set out to do, so that’s a good sign for upcoming races. The key, now, will be to recreate that as often as possible and to be as consistent as possible.”
Another Canadian came up with a top-10 result in the men’s slopestyle, Saturday, as Max Moffatt of Caledon, Ont., finished sixth with 81.12 points. That was the 20-year-old athlete’s second career top-10 finish, and his personal best, after he came up with eighth place in Silvaplana, Switzerland on March 3, 2018. He also finished sixth in a Big Air race on March 24, 2018, in Quebec City.
On the women’s side, Megan Oldham collected her first career top-10 result at her second-ever race on the World Cup circuit, Saturday, when she took ninth place with 52.11 points in an event that was won by Switzerland’s Sarah Hoefflin (78.52). The 17-year-old Canadian from Parry Sound, Ont., was 19th in the slopestyle event held on Nov. 23 in Stubai, Austria, earlier this season, in her World Cup debut.
The next slopestyle event at the FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup will take place Jan. 25-27 in Seiseralm, Italy.
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