Marino and Smits shine in season's grand finale in Quebec City
Mar 17, 2019·Snowboard Park & Pipe
Quebec City (CAN) - The final competition of the 2018/19 FIS Snowboard park & pipe season went down in the heart of one of Canada’s oldest, most historic, and most beautiful cities on Saturday evening, where the USA’s Julia Marino made it back-to-back Canadian victories and Seppe Smits of Belgium stepped up to the top of a big air World Cup podium for the first time in over four years at the Quebec City Jamboree big air World Cup.
With the crystal globe winners already decided and neither of Japan’s Reira Iwabuchi or Takeru Otsuka in attendance after a long, physically demanding seasons for the both of them, all that was left on Saturday night for the top six ladies and ten men in the final was to show their best in front of the huge, enthusiastic Quebecois crowd.
Marino took the win last season on the same metropolitan venue here in Quebec, where the giant scaffold ramp is sandwiched between two highway overpasses just minutes from the city’s old town, and when you add in her slopestyle win from two seasons ago at Stoneham the 21-year-old is running a streak of three straight years of wins in the province.
Putting down a silky smooth cab double underflip 900 and stylish backside 720 melon, Marino’s best two jumps earned her a combined score of 162.25 for the win.
“It feels good,” Marino said from the finish area, “It always feels good to come out doing you best and landing your tricks, especially at night with all the crowd watching. It’s cool to land your stuff in front of such a big crowd. The jump was really good, too. Just all-around it was a really good competition.”
Second place in Quebec City for the second season in a row went to Canada’s own Laurie Blouin, who also put down her version of the cab double 900, but had a bit of a shaky landing on her frontside 720, which may have cost her the top spot, and she finished with a score of 157.50.
Klaudia Medlova (SVK), meanwhile, finished the season the way she started it way back in August at Cardrona (NZL), taking third place on the day with a score of 122.50.
As mentioned, Iwabuchi took top spot on the final season rankings, with her teammate Miyabi Onitsuka finishing the season in second after a tiebreak with Iwabuchi. Third place and the bronze medal for the season would go to Medlova, who leadfrogged Anna Gasser into the overall podium with her result on Saturday night.
Over in the men’s competition, 12-year World Cup veteran Seppe Smits showed there’s still plenty of tricks still in his bag on Saturday evening, putting down a textbook performance with a switch backside 1260 and a frontside 1440 earning him a combined score of 175.75 and his first big air World Cup win since the 2014/15 season.
“It’s pretty amazing,” said a smiling Smits after awards, “I didn’t expect to get on the podium here. It was a good field and the jump was amazing. Everyone was landing some heavy tricks, so I just went for it. I landed one of my best switch back 12’s ever and it was my first time doing switch backside on a scaffold jump, so that was a big challenge. And landing it on the last run to seal the deal was a pretty amazing moment. I couldn’t believe it at first.”
Finishing the competition behind Smits in second was the Finnish ripper Kalle Jarvilehto, who took his second World Cup podium this season with a backside triple 1440 and a switch backside double 1260 for a total score of 171.50 points.
Rounding out the men’s podium in third was Switzerland’s Jonas Boesiger with his backside triple 1440 and a switch backside 1260 that earned him a score of 161.25 points.
The big air World Cup title went to Takeru Otsuka, with Chris Corning (USA) finishing the season in second, and Kalle Jarvilehto jumping into the third place after landing a spot on the podium in Quebec City.
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