McMorris and Parrot finish 1-2 in Quebec City big air
Mark McMorris and Max Parrot gave the Quebec City crowd quite a show with their 1-2 finish in the World Cup big air final on Saturday evening.
Both Canadian snowboarders got off to great starts with the first of their three jumps. After one round, McMorris led with 96.00 points while Parrot sat fourth with 89.50.
But they both had rough landings on their second jumps. Parrot crash landed his, only scoring 28.25 points, while McMorris’ behind touched the snow, earning him just 40.00 points. With each rider’s two highest-scoring runs counting towards the final results, McMorris sat in third while Parrot was sixth. The third Canadian in the 10-man final, Tyler Nicholson, moved himself up from seventh to fourth after two runs were completed.
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All three Canadians were clutch with their third and final attempts, laying down superb efforts. Nicholson earned 94.75 points, which combined with his first jump gave him a two-run total of 166.25. He was holding onto second place behind Norway’s Torgeir Bergrem when Parrot took his third attempt, scoring 95.25 to take the lead with a total of 184.75.
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Russian Anton Mamaev was up next and slotted himself just behind Parrot with a total of 174.75. Seventeen-year-old Norwegian Marcus Kleveland, who has made himself one to watch this season, had a shot at getting onto the podium after his second run scored 98.00, the single highest-scoring run of the day. But his final jump only scored in the mid-60s, taking him out of contention.
That put the spotlight squarely on McMorris, the final rider of the night. A clean jump scored 93.50 points, which added to his first run gave him a total of 189.50 and the gold medal by 4.75 points over Parrot. Nicholson ended up in fifth place.
The Canadians will be looking for more hardware on home snow on Sunday when they compete in slopestyle.
