LG Snowboard FIS World Cup KREISCHBERG JANUARY 6 2010

7th January 2010

Kreischberg, Austria

LG Snowboard FIS World Cup KREISCHBERG JANUARY 6 2010

The Canadian Alpine Snowboard Team on Wednesday landed two more podium results for Canada on the LG Snowboard FIS World Cup Tour with Jasey-Jay Anderson winning his 26th career competition and Alexa Loo finishing in second position in Parallel Giant Slalom (PGS) at Kreischberg, Austria.

Anderson, who fought hard throughout the entire day for his victory, defeated the Austrian Andreas Prommegger in the gold medal dual by a large lead of 1.15 seconds. After the first of two runs in the gold match-up, Anderson was trailing his rival by 0.56 seconds, which is considered a large lead in PGS, only to come back for the victory.

"Looks like every race is a tough one. This one was a lot harder than Telluride. The course was longer, approximately 40 seconds, with lots of turns and steep section. The snow was hard, so we were able to make some nice turns, but it didn't allow for any mistake. The fact that there was so many turns, and steep, made the course challenging. You definitely couldn't be complacent today, you had to be intelligent to win today," said the 34 years old snowboarder from Mont-Tremblant, Quebec.

Anderson, a four-time World Champion, is the current defending World Champion in the Olympic discipline.

"There was a course a little bit faster than the other one. The red course was a little faster. Each time I would race in the red course, I was able to get lots of time. In the second run of the Finals, I raced in the red course, so I was able to really step on the gas pedal and make up the difference," added Anderson.

Anderson opened the 2010 PGS season with a fifth place in Telluride, Colo., but was able to come back and win back-to-back races to currently sit alone in first place of the World Cup standings in Alpine snowboarding.

Tyler Jewell scored the best result for U.S. Snowboarding on Wednesday, finishing just off the podium in fourth place, slipping across the finish line barely behind Austrian Benjamin Karl.

In women's racing, Canada's Alexa Loo of Richmond, British Columbia, came back to the spotlight after a set of disappointments in December at Telluride. Loo raced to the silver medal and her best result ever on the FIS World Cup Tour, bested only by Nicolien Sauerbreij of The Netherlands, who netted her seventh career World Cup victory.

"Last year, I always kind of missed just a few hundredths to proceed," said Sauerbreij, who won the overall World Cup title two seasons ago. "I have the feeling again which enables me to play with the board and my opponents. It's good that everyone sees that I'm back."

Loo, who won Canada's first ever Alpine Snowboarding medal in women's alpine racing on January 15 2006 in Italy, now has three podium results to her credit in her World Cup career.

"Oh my God, this day was so good for all of us. It all just came together for me," said Loo, 37 years old. "The snow here was super good, on a turny and technical course which fits best my style of riding. I've got a lot of years of experience, with training with guys like Jasey-Jay – a master in these kind of course. I've learned a lot from him and it panned out. The coaches were awesome today, keeping me in my headspace and everything came together."

Loo, who posted her best results ever today with the silver medal, grabs her second Top 5 in the Canadian Olympic Snowboard Team Nomination process. Three Top 5s would secure her priority selection on the team to represent Canada at the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver this upcoming February.

"It was a big stress for me, because my worst result of all of last year was a 23rd, and I got two 25th places in Telluride before Christmas. I said to myself ‘Oh my God, do I know how to snowboard? What the heck is happening?' I kind of felt pressure coming into this event, especially since we only have a couple of events left and we have lots of good girls in the other teams (Halfpipe and Snowboardcross). For me, I've done a lot of work with media in Vancouver, setting myself up a little bit that I had to make the Olympics. Otherwise it would have been a little embarrassing for me."

Loo not only credits her win to a brand new board on which she was riding -- a board she received just started to use just this week -- but also to her engagement with Ari Goosen on Dec. 22. Goosen, who works in the Alpine snowboarding equipment industry, is a professional boot fitter at Surefoot in Colorado.

"I got engaged after Telluride, so maybe it's the rock on my finger who keeps me more balanced on my heel side edge. Ali, who is also my boot fitter, proposed to me on December 22nd, so it sort of helped me put things in perspective, and just change things a little bit."

The World Cup event in Kreischberg continues today with a Halfpipe contest. The next LG Snowboard FIS World Cup is scheduled on Sunday with a snowboardcross race in Bad Gastein.

RESULTS
LG Snowboard FIS World Cup
PGS – KREISCHBERG, AUT
JANUARY 6, 2010

Women
1 8 SAUERBREIJ Nicolien 1979 NED 
2 21 LOO Alexa 1972 CAN 
3 7 MAEGERT- KOHLI Fraenzi 1982 SUI 
4 14 KREINER Marion 1981 AUT 

Men
1 2 ANDERSON Jasey Jay 1975 CAN 
2 6 PROMMEGGER Andreas 1980 AUT 
3 3 KARL Benjamin 1985 AUT 
4 8 JEWELL Tyler 1977 USA

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