Goodwill Games

For Release: Sunday, February 20, 2000

Canadians Win Exciting Snowboardcross At Goodwill Games

LAKE PLACID, NY (Feb. 20) - Sunday's snowboardcross at Whiteface Mountain, the final snowboard event of the inaugural Winter Goodwill Games, turned out to be a cross alright--when all was said and done (and done again), Canadians Scott Gaffney and Candice Drouin came out on top as the victors.

Television coverage on TNT will be on Sunday from 2-4 and 8-11 p.m. EST.

U.S. Snowboard Team member Seth Wescott (Farmington, ME) came over the final jump on the course and busted a huge method air before crossing the finish line first in the men's finals. He was riding a different board since he had broken his other one during a run in an earlier round. Wescott was celebrating his victory until the public address announcer rattled off the dreaded words-"there is a protest on the course."

Ryan Neptune (Boise, ID), the 1999 U.S. Snowboardcross Champion, caught the nose of his board under the start gate in the finals, sending him head over heels into the snow while all of the other riders were off towards the finish line. Neptune filed a protest with officials and the decision was to rerun the race. Wescott was forced to ride back up the chair lift to the start gate, undoubtedly with less of a smile on his face than he had minutes before.

In the rerun, Wescott ended up coming in fourth and Neptune finished fifth. Gaffney led the entire race and was followed by teammate Mathieu Morency and Italian Arthur Hackhofer.

"Ryan (Neptune) and I both complained about the gates earlier in the week," said Wescott. "They didn't have it in in time and we knew it wasn't going to be solid-that we were gonna be ripping it out of there. It just didn't have time to harden in the ground."

There are two notes of irony on the whole situation. One is that the actual start gates are built by Neptune himself. He owns the company that produces them. Secondly, Neptune and Wescott ran into eachother during the rerun and suffered a fairly harsh crash.

"Neptune and I had a hard crash up there," said Wescott. "We went down hard in the second corner."

The course itself was a huge challenge for the riders. It claimed several people to injuries in training and practice sessions and caused others to simply drop out and not participate. After some riders complained that the jumps weren't big enough, the course was reset Saturday with several new jumps being put in and others boosted up in size. It featured doubles, triples, a step-down jump, banked turns and two immense jumps at the very bottom of the course.

"It was a great course," said Wescott. "It was alot of fun running it today."

U.S. Team rider Ricky Bower (Park City, UT) came in sixth behind Neptune in the finals. Bower was a fan favorite as he chose to ride in a qualifying run that he didn't need to. Another racer crashed a gate in a qualifier and was disqualified, allowing Bower to advance even though he wouldn't have had the other rider not taken a DQ. Bower didn't want to advance in such a fashion, so he chose to ride again in the next heat of qualifications. He made a spectacular pass on the final jump and won a photo finish to advance anyway.

The women's field was sliced down to just six entrants after injuries and pullouts took their toll. Drouin recovered from a poor start and got in front for the win. Sweden's Sophia Bergdahl was second and American Kelly Clark (Mt. Snow, VT) placed third. Amy Johnson (Bondville, VT), the only other American in the race, placed sixth after crashing in the bottom section.

"I didn't get quite the start I wanted," said Clark, who was second in the halfpipe event Thursday.

"(Snowboardcross) is good for your all-around riding skills. You're well aware of your edges and it keeps you on top of things. I liked the course. Alot of people dropped out because it got a little bigger, but I liked it."

The event collected another solid Goodwill Games crowd. Approximately 2,000 fans were treated the excitement and most stayed through several delays, cold temperatures and occasional snow.

Winter Goodwill Games
Sunday, February 20th
Snowboardcross
Lake Placid, NY

MEN

Scott Gaffney, Canada
Mathieu Morency, Canada
Arthur Hackhofer, Italy
Seth Wescott, Farmington, ME
Ryan Neptune, Boise, ID
Ricky Bower, Park City, UT
Jason Moore, Canada
Mathieu Chiquet, France
Niklas Sjogren, Sweden
Guillaume Sachot, France
Stefano Pozzolini, Italy
Simone Malusa, Italy
Maxence Ideshiem, France
Daniel Biveson, Sweden

WOMEN

Candice Drouin, Canada
Sophia Bergdahl, Sweden
Kelly Clark, Mt. Snow, VT
Michaela Steiner, Italy
Alison Clark, Canada
Amy Johnson, Bondville, VT

-Victory Bound!-

CONTACTS:

Scott Flanders

U.S. Ski Team News Bureau

801-557-2813

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