Francis Jobin finished at the foot of the podium in the freestyle descent (Slopestyle) of the Laax Snowboarding World Cup on Saturday in Switzerland. The Lac-Beauport athlete finished in fourth place with a total of 78.36 points, one place behind his compatriot Cameron Spalding (83.90) in this event which saw Ontarian Liam Brearley (89.93) be crown.
Silver went to Japanese Ryoma Kimata (85.31). The best of the two descents was retained in the ranking during the final.
Jobin obtained his highest score on his first run, which temporarily placed him in second place behind Spalding, but he could not do better on his second run which earned him 41.51 points.
Nicolas Laframboise stopped in the qualifying round and finished in 16e place.
The only Canadian finalist, Laurie Blouin (59.05) placed sixth. Juliette Pelchat finished at 19e rank.
“There is a new scoring format. So you have to be perfect and I made small mistakes here and there. I knew it would be limited for the podium, but I’m still happy,” admitted Blouin by videoconference.
Francis Jobin could not be reached by Sportcom, except that his teammate Blouin commented on his result.
“Frank, he was a little angry, because I think it’s the third time he’s finished fourth in a World Cup, so that meant something to him. He’s still happy with the way he rode, but it’s a bit bittersweet as a ranking. »
Asked to continue about the performance of her male compatriots, the veteran from Stoneham had these words: “It’s really sick and it’s really cool! They are young and they are really starting to be consistent. All the work they’ve done is starting to pay off and it’s been taking over since Seb [Sébastien Toutant] and Maxence [Parrot] are no longer there [dans le circuit des Coupes du monde]. »
The next generation is not worse for the guys!
Laurie Blouin
For her part, Blouin indicated that she did not make her planned descent because her lack of speed before a jump where she was to perform a Backside Rodeo could have led to unfortunate consequences.
“It’s boring to take my run down a level, but it was better that I landed. […] At least I was able to adjust and make the changes. »
The cancellation of the Calgary World Cup freestyle downhill scheduled for February 9-11 will mean the 27-year-old will return home sooner, allowing him to complete a training block that was not scheduled for next month.
“I will be able to do some rehearsals of maneuvers, because lately it has been hard to do the ones I want. It’s rare that we have time to do that during the season,” concluded the silver medalist in the freestyle downhill at the PyeongChang Games.
Blouin will continue her preparation for the big jump (Big Air) of the X-Games and possibly the acrobatic descent, she who is the first replacement in this prestigious competition.