Squamish's half pipe snowboarder Justin Lamoureux took second place at the Canada Snowboard Nationals in Stoneham, Quebec Saturday (March 27), capping off a tremendously successful season for the athlete and the entire Canadian snowboarding team.
Lamoureux grabbed second place with 43.0 points just one week after winning the 2010 FIS World Cup Crystal Globe in Spain.
Requests for comment were not returned by press time.
Ancaster Ont. boarder Brad Martin took top spot at the Stoneham Nationals with a first run score of 44.8 giving Martin his fourth consecutive Canadian title.
"It feels good to have four national titles in a row," said Martin in a Snowboard Canada press release.
"I was just having fun, riding with my friends. That is what snowboarding is all about. It was a good contest to end the season. I am always happy when the sun is out."
Another Ontario native, Toronto's Trevor Niblett, earned 38.7 points ensuring a third place finish.
Fresh off the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games, 17-year-old Palmer Taylor won first place in the women's category at the Quebec competition with a score of 43.3.
Taylor also won the junior title and the 2010 Neil Daffern Award.
Whistler's Mercedes Nicoll secured a second place finish on the podium with 42.2 points while fellow Whistlerite Katie Tsuyuki finished in third place with 39.2 points.
Nicoll finished the season with two consecutive World Cup podium finishes one at La Molina and Valmalenco.
The remaining national competition for slope style, snowboard cross and parallel started on Monday (March 29) at Mont-Tremblant, Que. Both Martin and Taylor received $1,500 for their first place finish while Lamoureux and Nicoll took home $1,000 and third place finishers Tsuyuki and Niblett received $400 a piece.
The winners of the slope style, snowboard cross and parallel giant slalom are expected to receive the same cash prize amount as the half pipe winners.
The season wraps up for Canadian snowboarders with a total of two Olympic gold medals, one Olympic silver medal, 33 World Cup podium finishes and three Crystal Globes.
