Meryeta O'Dine knew it would take a podium finish or two for her to make the cut for the world junior championships and finish the season on the World Cup snowboardcross tour.
So what better place to accomplish that mission while winning a North American Cup event on her home slopes at Tabor Mountain Ski Resort?
The 18-year-old from Prince George ran the table and went undefeated in four heats Thursday, topping a field of 31 female riders. She won the medal final ahead of second-place Carle Brennaman of Comox, third-place Georgia Baff of Canberra, Australia. Karen Idaware of Tokyo, Japan was fourth.
"I got all my crashing out on the first day and slowly have been working my way up through it," said O'Dine, who finished fourth after a fall in the big final on Saturday and was second in Sunday's race at Tabor. "(Thursday's final) was really fun, it was a nice close battle in the start and I just raced my race and held my line like I knew I could.
"It was me and Carle until the first berm and I tried to push her into the softer snow and it paid off."
O'Dine's goal for the season is to make the senior national team and her results the past week bring that closer to reality.
"If it doesn't happen I'm OK with it because I'm still younger and I still have a lot to learn," said O'Dine.
Following today's races at Tabor, O'Dine will travel to Cooper, Colo., for NorAm races Feb. 17-21, then will head to a World Cup event at PyongChang, South Korea, a test event for the 2018 Winter Olympics. She also plans to race the World Cup in Veysonnaz, Switzerland, March 4-6 and a NorAm race next month in Maine. The junior world championships start April 3 in Slovenia.
In the men's race Thursday, Bobby Minghini of Snowshoe, West Virginia didn't let broken bones in his arm and hand get in the way of his second podium finish in less than a week at Tabor. He won Thursday's big final by a couple of board lengths over Jake Vedder of Pinckney, Mich., third-place Adam Dickson of Jindabyne, Australia and fourth-place Indrik Trahan of Trois-Rivires, Que.
"From top to bottom the field is pretty stacked. and we had some good battles," said Minghini. "It was a three-way photo finish in the quarterfinal. It was super-fun."
Minghini has been on and off the Word Cup circuit for 10 years and is a five-time Winter X Games competitor. The 29-year-old is now based in Lake Tahoe, Calif., and trains at the International Snowboard Training Centre in Colorado, along with Vedder. Two days before he left for Prince George he fell on his right arm in a training run and broke his scapula and radius.
He placed third on Saturday at Tabor and followed that up with a win Sunday in the small final.
"I always say small finals are harder to win than the real final because everyone's angry about not making the real final," laughed Minghini.
Course officials, volunteers and racers were out early in the morning working on the course after 15 centimetres of new snow fell overnight. During the races, workers with rakes and shovels kept on top of preventing ruts from developing on the corners. The course should be in great shape for today, the final of four days of NorAm racing at Tabor in the past week.
"The course is allowing everyone to battle and it's keeping the racing tight," said Minghini. "We were worried about the turns being bumpy with all the new snow but all the volunteers did a great job getting everything clean. It was the best the track has been of the three races, it's just getting better and better."
Brennaman, 26, placed ninth in a World Cup race Jan. 9 in Feldberg, Germany and is ranked 15th in the World Cup standings. Brennaman won Saturday's race and was fifth Sunday to improve her grip on first place in the NorAm points standings, but O'Dine has closed the gap with her win on Thursday.
"Meryeta and I are really close, she's riding really well and that's really cool - I love to ride with her and we have a lot of fun racing together," said Brennaman, now in her seventh year racing NorAms.
"She's coming up fast on me and beating me and it's good training for both of us to be pushing each other. The course is really fun and Tabor has put on a really good event. I'm having a really good week."
Danny Bourgeois of Rosemare, Que., won the men's small final Thursday. Rosie Mancari of Anchorage, Alaska was the women's small final winner.
Today's races start at 10:30 a.m.
