Silver for slope style snowboarder Quinten Fast
Article by Christine Ulmer, Team BC Communications
Team BC earned its 76th medal of the 2015 Canada Winter Games on Friday when Agassiz’s Quinten Fast rode his way to a silver medal finish in the men’s snowboard slope style competition.
Fast was in third position going into the finals at Tabor Mountain and after two mediocre attempts at the slope style course the 14-year-old put it all on the line, attempting a new trick that ultimately landed him on the podium.
“I had a few rough landings on my first two runs,” said Fast. “I fell a few times because I just wasn’t focused and was having a hard time keeping my speed up for some of the features so all of the pressure was on my final run.”
After a fresh wax job on his board, Fast refocused and tried to relax.
“Right before my last run I was just trying to breathe deeply and not let negative thoughts get into my head,” he said. “I felt great and landed a really hard trick that I’ve been working on but hadn’t been able to get until today. I did some good spins on the rail and had to go pretty fast to catch them.”
At the bottom of his final run, Fast knew he had done well but was surprised his score came back as high as it did.
“When I saw my score I was so excited, I couldn’t stop smiling. The Canada Winter Games is probably the biggest contest I have done in my life. The course was so good, the jumps were super floaty, I just loved them.”
Other results from Friday saw Team BC hockey defeat New Brunswick by a score of 5-3. The women’s curling team lost to New Brunswick with a score of 4-9. They will play for fifth place on Saturday morning at 9 a.m.
The synchronized swim team posted two fourth-place finishes in the duet competition on Friday and ended up fourth in the team event. The solo competition gets underway on Saturday.
Team BC’s female squash team will play for the gold on Saturday; the male team will be competing for bronze.
In badminton, B.C.’s mixed team has also advanced to the bronze medal game on Saturday.