Photo: The Canadian Press

Maltais Soars to Season's End

Canadians were off to a great start today in Europe capturing multiple medals in winter events. A few familiar faces also shined in Diving with their new season officially in full swing.

Maltais finishing things off in style

Dominique Maltais (Petite-Rivière-St-Francois, QC) put a cherry on top of an impressive season by capturing gold in the last Snowboard World Cup event of the season just a week after clinching the snowboard cross Crystal Globe title last week with a silver medal in Sweden.

The 2013 World Championship silver medallist finished on top of the podium in the season finale in Sierra Nevada, Spain ahead of teammate and reigning Olympic and world champion Maëlle Ricker (Squamish, BC).

Turski remains golden

Fresh off of winning her first Freestyle Skiing slopestyle world title two weeks ago in Voss, Norway, Kaya Turski (Montreal, QC) continued her winning ways by capturing her fourth consecutive European X Games gold medal in Tignes, France.

Turski with 92.33 points finished ahead of teammate and 2013 world silver medallist Dara Howell (Huntsville, ON) who finished in third place with 88.33 points to capture bronze.

“I felt really good coming into this week, especially after winning World Championships [earlier in the month] and solidifying my spot on the Canadian Team going to the Olympics. After Aspen, getting the silver, I really wanted to come back and prove myself and get into that top spot at X Games,” said Turski, adding, “I feel like I came here wanting to prove that I still have my spot in the sport, especially among all these new young girls with so much talent.”

Divers remain on the podium

Canada had a couple of podium finishes to celebrate today at the World Series of Diving in Dubai. The Olympic bronze medal winning team of Meaghan Benfeito (Montreal, QC) and Roseline Filion (Laval, QC) captured silver for the second consecutive weekend with five dives from 10m worth 331.44 points.

The new duo of Olympic bronze medallist Jennifer Abel (Laval, QC) and Pamela Ware (Beloiel, QC) finished in third place shortly after in the 3m with 296.10 points. The medal marks Ware’s first in a World Series event.