It was a big day for Faye Gulini yesterday at the Sprint U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix at Canyons Resort in Park City. She was U.S. Snowboarding’s top snowboard cross finisher in only her second race back from a knee injury, taking second to win the women’s U.S. Championship.
”Coming back from injury, I needed this. I needed a little confidence booster. I went to the last World Cup and it was really stressful, I felt nervous. But it is good to be back and hopefully it will carry over into the last two World Cups,” the Utah native said.
Fellow teammate, Nate Holland, held on to fourth in the men’s competition after an unfortunate fall near the beginning of the championship heat. He was the top American male finisher.
”I’m pumped to have the U.S. Championship title but I really wanted to put the exclamation point on it with a win. Right off the start features, I got run into and taken out. There’s not much I could have done,” Holland said. “I’m stoked for the title, but wish I would have gotten the win. Sitting one off the podium is a bittersweet spot.”
Both he and Gulini were awarded Green Jackets for their skills.
First place finishers were Austrian Marcus Schairer for the men and Dominique Maltais of Canada for the women.
”I was not expecting this. I was hoping to end up in the finals and I was hoping I could win this race and it’s really amazing. The season has been up and down and up and down. Now I’m up again and I hope it stays like this. The conditions were really tough today. The snow was really soft and you had to look that you don’t make any mistakes,” Schairer said.
And after winning the consolation round, two-time Olympian, Graham Watanabe announced that yesterday would be his last race.
”Life is unpredictable, you never know. But my plan as of now is to just go see what else the world has to offer. I still love snowboarding. I know that that part of my life isn’t done. Whether it’s freeriding or whatever. This isn’t really a big departure. I will remember the good times. The whole time I’ve been on tour, it’s been a lot of laughs and I’ve made a lot of really good friends and I’ll look back on that and hopefully maintain those relationships,” Watanabe said.
For more results, click on the following: Men’s Results or Women’s Results.
Check out upcoming Grand Prix competitions here:
2/18 Sprint U.S. Grand Prix – Snowboardcross, Skicross Canyons, UT, 3 p.m. ET, NBC Sports
2/26 Sprint U.S. Grand Prix – Snowboardcross, Canyons, UT, 3 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network
2/26 Sprint U.S. Grand Prix – Skicross, Canyons, UT, 4 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network
