Snowboard Yukon had three athletes competing at Canada Snowboard’s Slopestyle Junior Nationals at Blue Mountain near Collingwood, Ont. recently.

The event, which was supposed to be held over two days (March 4-6), ended up being compressed with qualifications and finals on the same day due to rapidly deteriorating conditions.

Beyond the two-jump and three-rail course, rain and 14-degree weather added an extra challenge for the athletes.

The competition had athletes from all age categories competing together with the top six from each qualification heat moving on to the finals.

The best of two runs counted.

The top 12 riders then got an additional two runs to determine the final ranking.

Leading the way for the Yukon was Stian Langbakk. The 14-year old qualified first in his heat with one of the best runs of the day. He had solid jumps with two huge switch (unnatural stance) 720s rotating in opposite directions. He followed that up with a very technical rail section featuring a cab 270 pullback on the giant rainbow rail.

Unfortunately, he was not able to replicate this in the finals. On the strength of his qualification run, he won a bronze medal in U15 male and finished 10th overall. This Junior Nationals medal follows medals at B.C. and Alberta Provincials earlier in the season.

Leo Spiers-Leung had a solid first qualification run, finishing 6th in U15 male. In his rail section, he did a nicely executed frontside lip slide with a 270 rotation out.

Also competing was Seamus MacDonald, who sadly did not land either of his qualifying runs.

It was an excellent learning experience for the athletes, who head off to the Arctic Winter Games almost immediately. They will be joined in Mat-Su, Alaska this coming week by Will Stenzig, Danee Marsh, Eva Benkert, Aven Sutton and Ginger MacDonald.

– Submitted by Brent Langbakk