Vedder Gold, Molodyh Silver, Lacroix Bronze in SBX
Jake Vedder (Pinckney, Mich.) rode away with the men’s snowboard cross gold medal, and Mike Lacroix (Shrewsbury, Mass.) took home the bronze, at the 2018 FIS Junior Freestyle Ski & Snowboard World Championships at Cardrona Alpine Resort Monday. In the women’s snowboardcross finals, Livia Molodyh (Hubbard, Ore.) won the silver medal.
Vedder was the top qualifier and simply rode away from the rest of the field, winning his opening round and cruising through the quarterfinals, semifinals and into the finals. In the finals, Vedder moved to the front from the start and escaped the carnage behind to win his first junior world title.
“I hear someone say ‘woah’ next to me, I look over and his board’s right by my head, and then we made contact going in to turn five and I went down,” said Lacroix.
"And then the German (Maximilian Rathgeb) went shooting by us into second but somehow crashed in the last bank," added Grondin "I don't know what happened to him there. It was a crazy race, but it was fun."
Snowboard competition continues Tuesday with the team snowboardcross event.
Livia Molodyh (left) won the silver, Russia's Kristina Paul won the gold and Switzerland's Sophie Hediger took home the bronze in the women's snowboardcross finals. (Winter Games NZ / Neil Kerr)
Jake Vedder (yellow bib) rode to victory ahead of Canada's Eliot Grondin Monday. (Winter Games NZ / Neil Kerr)
Jake Vedder (blue bib) won the quarterfinal heat en route to taking the gold medal. (Winter Games NZ / Neil Kerr)
