Meryeta O’Dine just missed a trip to the medal podium at the FIS snowboard cross world championships Friday, March 28 in Engadin, Switzerland.
The two-time Olympic medalist from Prince George finished fourth in the women’s event.
It was the best-ever finish for the 28-year-old in the world championships, held every two years.
O’Dine was battling for second place heading on the first technical section of the course when she lost her balance and fell while landing a jump.
Italian Michela Moioli overtook Charlotte Bankes of Great Britain on the final turn and held it for her first world championship win. Bankes took silver and Julia Pereira de Sousa of France was the bronze medalist.
In the quarterfinal round, O’Dine avoided disaster near the bottom of the course when three riders went down, allowing the Prince George rider a clear path to the finish.
In the semifinal, O’Dine moved up from fourth to second heading into the final corner to claim a spot in the big final.
Meanwhile, in the men’s race, World Cup points leader Eliot Grondin of Sainte Marie, Que., won his first world championship gold medal, edging silver medalist Loan Bozzollo of France and Alessandro Haemmerle of Austria for top spot on the podium.
Grondin took the inside line on the final right-hand turn at the bottom and passed Austrians Haemmerle and Jakob Dusek into the lead, which he held.
Grondin won bronze in 2021 at the world event.
Mackenzie native Evan Bichon was 26th, Liam Moffatt of Truro, N.S, was 29th and Colby Graham of Prince George, in his first world championship, placed 48th.
In the women’s event, Audrey McManiman of Saint Ambrose de Kildaire, Que., was 14th and Tess Critchlow of Kelowna was 16th.
O’Dine and Grondin will race together in the mixed team event on Saturday. They were bronze medalists in that event at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Bichon and McManiman will also represent Canada in the team event.
Meanwhile, at the final World Cup ski cross event of the season, a three-way battle is shaping up to determine the Crystal Globe FIS points championship.
Reece Howden of Cultis Lake, coming off a gold-medal finish two weeks ago in Craigleith, Ont., is second in the points standings with 838 points, 12 behind Florian Wilmsmann of Germany, with Italy’s Simone Deromedis also within striking range in third place with 825.
Howden was fastest in qualifying Friday, posting a time of 1:06.44, just ahead of Wilmsmann (1:06.77). Kevin Drury of Toronto (eighth, 1:07.3)7 and Nicholas Katrusiak of Whistler (26th, 1:08.21) both qualified for the races Saturday and Sunday.
Jared Schmidt of Ottawa (36th, 1:08.53) and Gavin Rowell of Prince George (40th, 1:08.59) missed the cut.
Two Canadian women qualified in the women’s event. Courtney Hoffos on Invermere, who won silver at the world championhips last week, was eighth in qualifying (1:12.69) and Abbey McEwen of Edmonton was 12th (1:13.04).
Marielle Berger Sabbatel of France set the pace in 1:11.07.
