Quebecer Eliot Grondin took first place in the snowboard cross qualifications by flying over the competition on Wednesday evening (Quebec time) in Zhangjiakou, at the Beijing Olympics.
The 20-year-old snowboarder made no mistakes as he took the start alone on the track. The Sainte-Marie native only needed one run to qualify for the round of 16, which will be played overnight.
Grondin finished his race in 1 min 16.29 s, 71 hundredths faster than the Austrian Julian Lueftner. The latter and his compatriots Jakob Dusek and Alessandro Haemmerle will be ones to watch in the next events, they who took ranks 2 to 4.
Nova Scotian Liam Moffatt, 13th, also managed to qualify on the first try. British Columbian Kevin Hill had to make a second run to find out his rank, 26th.
At the Pyeongchang Games in 2018, Grondin took 36th place in the competition.
Things are going well for the Canadians in the alpine combined
Halfway through the men’s alpine combined event, Canadians James Crawford and Brodie Seger are settled in second and third place in the standings.
They respectively completed the descent in two and 42 hundredths of a second faster than the leader, the Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.
British Columbian Broderick Thompson also finished this stage of the competition in the top 10, he who is currently eighth. Eventually, Calgary native Trevor Philp took the 19th rung.
The participants in this event meet on Thursday for the second and final stage, a slalom. The accumulation of their two times will determine the final classification.
A first case of doping
In addition, the International Testing Agency announced that Iranian skier Hossein Saveh Shemshaki had been suspended for the duration of the Beijing Games after testing positive for an anabolic steroid.
The technical event specialist represents the first case of doping made public during the current Olympics. However, he can still challenge his sanction before the anti-doping chamber of the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The skier has never competed in a stage on the World Cup circuit. His best career result is a 31st place in slalom at the Sochi Games (2014). The 36-year-old had also participated in the Vancouver Games (2010).
This is the second case of doping in the history of Iran at the Olympics, after weightlifter Mohamad Nasehi Ar Jomand at the Munich Games (1972).
Other competitions
In skeleton, the sole Canadian representative, Blake Enzie, is 19th after two runs. The Albertan is not a favorite in this event, he who is ahead of only six athletes after two runs. With a cumulative time of 2:03.41, he is three seconds behind the leader, the German Christopher Grotheer.
The third and fourth rounds of the skeleton will be contested on Friday morning.
