Éliot Grondin was clearly not satisfied after his gold medal won on Saturday at the Snowboard Cross World Cup in Gudaouri. The Sainte-Marie athlete did it again on Sunday, once again climbing to the top of the podium in Georgia.
The Quebecer won the first three elimination races on Sunday to qualify for the grand final.
Grondin did not slow down during the final descent, crossing the finish line in first place ahead of Australian Cameron Bolton, Italian Omar Visintin and fellow Nova Scotian Liam Moffatt.
“I am proud of what I accomplished this weekend! It’s incredible. Yesterday [samedi], I took the time to analyze my race to see what I could improve to be better today because the second race is always the most difficult. This morning, when I woke up, I was super calm,” Grondin mentioned by videoconference.
Bolton had taken the lead after the first intermediate sector, but Grondin had not said his last word and was able to quickly catch up with his rival to take the lead of the race before the last section. The 22-year-old snowboarder maintained his lead until the finish line.
“I missed the start a bit and I think that was a good thing. I took advantage of the slipstream, I created speed behind Bolton and he left the right side wide open for me after turn #3 so I took my chance and managed to hold on until down. The course was long, I knew I had time to catch up,” explained the winner of the day.
This is Grondin’s fourth gold medal this season in five outings. He also finished third in December at the Cervinia stage in Italy.
Éliot Grondin sits at the top of the provisional general ranking for the snowboard cross season with his 460 points. The Austrian Alessandro Haemmerle follows in second place (272 points). With his silver medal of the day, Cameron Bolton climbs to third place overall with 237 points.
It’s an achievement to find myself in the grand final in every race since the start of the season. I wasn’t as consistent last year when my worst race was a third place. I’m very proud of all that.
Eliot Grondin
The next Snowboard Cross World Cup will be held February 2-4 in Sierra Nevada, Spain.