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Freestyle team wins first Timber Tour gold

It seems every time the Yukon Freestyle Ski Team leaves the territory they accomplish something for the first time. A gold medal on the Timber Tour ..
freestyleski

It seems every time the Yukon Freestyle Ski Team leaves the territory they accomplish something for the first time.

A gold medal on the Timber Tour ... Check!

Yukon’s Etienne Geoffroy won his team’s first gold medal on the Timber Tour in Prince George, B.C., over the weekend.

“It felt great to stand at the top of the podium,” he said.

Geoffroy captured the medal in big air at the nationwide competitive ski series in the M2 division (16-17).

In fact, Yukon monopolized the podium in the event, with teammates Josh Harlow and Dylan Reed taking the silver and bronze, respectively.

Geoffroy, 16, who won silver in big air on the Timber Tour last month in Penticton, won gold with a switch 1080 with a mute grab.

“It was one of the best tricks I’ve ever done,” he said. “It’s awesome. Again I was one of the youngest in my category, so it’s great to go out there and show them what I’m made of.”

Harlow climbed to silver with a corked 900 with a blunt grab.

Reed claimed bronze with a switch 900 with a mute grab.

“I had never done that before in a competition,” said Reed. “That was actually one of the best switch 9s I’ve ever done.”

Reed climbed onto the podium twice in Prince George. The 17-year-old also won bronze in the slopestyle competition in M2.

It was his first time winning two medals at a single Outside competition.

However, the Yukon team believes some mistakes might have been made in the judging of the slopestyle event.

“The judging’s pretty weird at competitions, but it is what it is,” said Reed. “I did a switch 900 and they marked down as a switch 540, which is a 360 less than what I did.

“Once they corrected it, they only bumped up my score three points or something because they said they didn’t really remember my trick.”

The Yukon squad almost had its first medal of the season in a female division over the weekend.

Lyndsey Boorse narrowly missed the podium in the big air after completing her first 360 in a competition, taking fourth in F3 (15-16), one point behind the bronze finisher.

Boorse, who won gold at the B.C. Freestyle Ski Championships last season, also took seventh in slopestyle.

Finishing behind Reed in slopestyle was teammate Aidan Allen in fourth, Harlow in fifth and Geoffroy in seventh.

“Unfortunately, in slopestyle it was really cold out there and I kind of lost my focus when I was waiting to drop in for my run, and I fell both times and got seventh,” said Geoffroy.

Other Yukon results include Niko Rodden with fifth in big air and ninth in slopestyle and Kyran Allen with sixth in big air and 16th in slopestyle, in the M3 division (15-16).

“Everyone did awesome,” said Yukon coach Steven Harlow.

“We didn’t realize how the rails were going to be judged, versus the jumps, but now we know we have to work a little on the rails, pump up the jumps as well. When we get to junior nationals, we’ll be doing tricks that will blow away the other guys.”

The Timber Tour is a qualifier for the Canadian Junior Freestyle Ski Championships in March. With their results at the last two Timber Tours, Geoffroy, Reed and Josh have decided to compete at the senior nationals at the end of March at the Apex Resort in Calgary, Alta.

“We weren’t sure if we were at that level to go compete against older people,” said Geoffroy. “After this comp we proved to ourselves that we are.”

Contact Tom Patrick at

tomp@yukon-news.com