Canadian Maltais wins snowboard cross gold, Ricker 3rd

Dominique Maltais took over the snowboard cross World Cup standings Wednesday with a gold-medal performance in Collingwood, Ont.

The Petite--Rivière-St-François, Que., native finished ahead of Alexandra Jekova of Bulgaria and teammate Maëlle Ricker of Squamish, B.C., at the Blue Mountain course. The red-hot Maltais came into the race winning gold in the Winter X-Games and back-to-back podium finishes at the last two World Cup events.

The victory also puts Maltais atop the World Cup standings, ahead of American Lindsay Jacobellis, who is out for the season with a torn ACL in her left knee that she suffered during the Winter X-Games.

"I'm really happy as I've been pushing myself to get to this level the last few years," said Maltais. "Blue Mountain is nice and the Village is great. I think they did a great job with the course."

Ricker is also on a roll with two straight third places finishes and her first podium on the World Cup Tour this season. Wednesday’s bronze-medal effort is further proof that Ricker is on her way back from an injury that kept her on the sidelines for most of last season.

"I'm getting there slowly, not quite as fast as I would like to be. I just have to be patient," said Ricker. "It's good to be back on the World Cup podium. I had trouble keeping my speed up in the top section, an area where Dom and Alex are really fast. I got off to a good start in the finals, but those two got ahead of me.  I looked for ways to get past Alex but I just ran out of course," continued Ricker.

"It was a super fun weekend, the event organizers did an awesome job. Hopefully we will be back next year and for years to come."

Rob Fagan from Cranbrook, B.C., was the fastest Canadian on the men's side, finishing in 13th place, followed by Kevin Hill from Vernon, B.C. in 17th.