By Jeff D'Andrea

Lakeland gets two gold medals in Winter Games slopestyle

Feb 20, 2014 | 3:29 PM

When Regina’s Mark McMorris take home Canada’s first medal two weeks ago in the inaugural Olympic snowboarding slopestyle event at the Sochi Games, Reese McDougall was watching.

McDougall, the 14-year-old PA snowboarder took home gold for Team Lakeland at the U17 slopestyle event Thursday at Little Red River Park in part of the Saskatchewan Winter Games.

When asked if he was inspired by McMorris’ accomplishments, who won bronze while riding with a broken rib, McDougall said “definitely.”

“I’m excited,” said McDougall after winning gold. “It was fun.”

Even though it was announced before his second round that he had already won the event, McDougall still wasn’t satisfied.

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As he went down for his victory run, McDougall attempted a 720 (two full rotations) on the final jump to push the envelope even more.

“For my victory lap, I just tried a 7 on the bottom just for fun,” laughed McDougall, who washed the landing.
McDougall was one of two gold medal winners at the slopestyle event for Lakeland. Melfort’s Sydney Fellman took home the top prize in the U14 girls event

The Lakeland snowboarding team had been practicing together for about a month on the Little Red River Park, making sure they had their routines down before competition time.

“We just wanted to make sure they were ready for today, and it was pretty clear that Lakeland was ready for today,” said Adam Balon, Lakeland snowboarding coach. “All of our athletes rode really well.

“We took home some hardware today, but I’m super proud of all of them.”

Of course, having the event run on their home course was an advantage

“Home field advantage, home rink, whatever, it makes a big difference, obviously,” said Balon. “But when it all boils down to it, they were prepared.

“I’d like to think they had a good day today.”

Slopestyle will continue Friday with Day 2 of the event. The big air event will take place on Saturday.

jdandrea@panow.com

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea