Meryeta O’Dine won the bronze medal in the women’s snowboard cross on Wednesday.
As American veteran Lindsey Jacobellis glided brilliantly to the finish line for her first Olympic title at her fifth Games, O’Dine found herself third throughout the race, trying to tackle France’s Chloe Trespeuch while repelling the offensives of the Australian Belle Brockhoff.
The 24-year-old British Columbian held off Brockhoff and won Canada’s third medal in snowboarding at the Games, after Maxence Parrot and Mark McMorris in slopestyle.
“You have to be patient and really hold the line where you know you’re going to go. There are places where I tried to make an overtake and there was either no more space or I was slowed down,” O’Dine explained of the very tough finish.
Her teammate Tess Critchlow placed sixth after finishing second in the small final.
Audrey McManiman, a native of St-Ambroise-de-Kildare, was eliminated in the quarter-finals. The other Canadian in the running, Zoe Bergermann, suffered the same fate.
Canada could add to its haul late in the day in Beijing as 37-year-old veteran Charles Hamelin could become the fifth Canadian Olympian to win six Olympic medals in the 1,500-metre event.
Her teammate Kim Boutin, bronze medalist in the 500 meters on Monday, will try to put herself in a position to add to her record by participating in the preliminaries of the 1000 meters and the semi-finals of the women’s relay.
McEachran misses his shot
Earlier, freestyle skier Evan McEachran looked set to secure a high jump podium after a big first run, but he ended up finishing ninth.
McEachran led for much of the first run after scoring 93.00 — tied for second among the best in the competition — after executing an impressive reverse triple cork. His score held until eventual gold medalist Birk Ruud of Norway scored 95.75 on the final jump of the first round.
McEachran went big with an 1800 on his second try, but he lost control and crashed on his landing.
On his final jump, a triple cork, he fell on landing, ruining his podium hopes.
“Honestly, I had a big mental block on the two tricks I did today,” McEachran said. I’m just glad I was able to perform them, attempt them, and land on my feet without hurting myself.
“Unfortunately, it was very tight. I think if I had landed second and not fallen, I could have finished on the podium. The pill is hard to swallow. »
Ruud was assured of the gold medal heading into his final jump after scoring 187.75 points on his first two jumps.
In another snowboard event, Longueuil resident Élizabeth Hosking and Albertan Brooke D’Hondt earned their ticket to the finals of the halfpipe snowboard event.
Hosking had a smooth second run, earning him a score of 70.50. This result allowed him to finish ninth in qualifying.
As for D’Hondt, from Calgary, she had two good runs. She improved her score slightly in the second run, when her run earned her 70.00 points. She finished 10th in qualifying, just behind Hosking.
On the men’s side, Alberta’s Liam Gill suffered elimination in qualifying.
At the National Alpine Ski Center in Yanqing, Erin Mielzynski proved to be the best Canadian in the slalom, with a 16th position, just ahead of Laurence St-Germain, of Saint-Ferréol-les-Neiges.