5.2°C Cloudy 
Canadian snowboarders had a tough time at the second halfpipe event in the FIS World Cup tour, with none of the five riders in the competition advancing to the finals in Saas Fee, Switzerland, last week (Nov. 4 and 5). Dominique Vallée of Montréal was the only national team rider to throw down in Saas Fee, finishing 24th while falling after a frontside 5, a trick she has routinely landed in training and competition.
Development group rider Palmer Taylor of Collingwood, Ont., posted the top finish for a Canadian, and her best-ever World Cup result, by finishing 16th. Canadian Halfpipe Team Head Coach Tom Hutchison complimented her solid run, saying she has a “very bright future,” though he noted that she made a “big mistake” by dragging her hand across the pipe bottom in a transition between tricks.
Whistler’s Ryan Rausch finished 48th in the men’s event, while Charles Reid of Mont-Tremblant, Que., took 20th spot and Calgary’s Dustin Craven wound up 37th.
Australia’s Torah Bright claimed the women’s title, while Japan’s Kokubo Kazuhiro emerged victorious on the men’s side. The 64 competitors rode in an 18-foot pipe, a non-Olympic-size facility, and Hutchison said the Canadians had spent a lot of time in New Zealand training tricks on a larger Olympic-sized pipe, “which is our main focus this season.”
Top-ranked Canadian riders Justin Lamoureux, Jeff Batchelor and Brad Martin did not compete in Saas Fee, nor did World Cup standings leaders Shaun White and Jiayu Liu.
Coaches honoured
Twelve B.C. coaches are among the 46 leaders to be honoured as the winners of the 2009 Petro Canada Coaching Excellence Awards, recognizing coaches whose athletes achieved international success during the past year at events like open world championships and Special Olympics World Winter Games.
Among the winners is Dusan Grasic, coach of Whistler’s Michael Janyk, who won a world championship slalom bronze medal, as is Vancouver’s Brent Kehl, coach of Whistler-based ski cross world champion Ashleigh McIvor and bronze medallist Davey Barr.
Squamish’s Trennon Paynter, coach of world halfpipe silver medallists Justin Dorey and Megan Gunning, is another honouree, as are Canadian Para-Alpine Ski Team Head Coach Jean-Sébastien Labrie, who works with world champions such as North Vancouver’s Lauren Woolstencroft and Kimberley’s Josh Dueck, and North Vancouver’s Randal Scott, coach of four Special Olympics World Winter Games alpine skiing medallists.
The Sport Leadership Awards Ceremony is to take place Friday (Nov. 13) at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre.
