Quebec’s Eliot Grondin maintained his dominance of World Cup snowboard cross leaderboard, putting down another gold-medal performance on the course Saturday in Gudauri, Georgia.
The 22-year-old from Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce, Que., won his third race in four World Cup starts this season, topping the podium ahead of Cameron Bolton of Australia and Alessandro Haemmerle of Austria, who were second and third respectively in the Big Final.
Grondin has won three of the four World Cup races and hasn’t missed the odium yet, placing third Dec. 16 in Cervinia, Italy.
Prince George racer Evan Bichon made the qualifying cut to advance to the quarterfinal round and finished 16th out of 57 entrants.
The 25-year-old native of Mackenzie is becoming a frequent flyer in the advanced heats, coming off a 14th-place result last weekend in St. Mortiz, Switzerland after just missing qualifying in the top-16 Dec. 12 in France.
In the women’s race Saturday in Gudauri, Chloe Trespeuch of France won gold, Eva Adamcyzkova of Czechia claimed silver and Sophie Hediger of Switzerland was the bronze medalist.
Meryeta O’Dine of Prince George was 17th in qualifying and missed the quarterfinals by one spot.
Meanwhile, at the World Cup skicross event Saturday in Alleghe, Italy, Colby Graham of Prince George was 43rd out of 47.
Reece Howden of Chilliwack won that race.
Marielle Thompson of Whistler edged Quebec’s Brittany Phelan for gold in the women’s Big Final.
