by Shanti Sosienski

Boardercross is usually a spectators favorite because of the spectacular wrecks and fast pace of the competition. However yesterday at Vegetate might have been the exception. Tension seemed high early on due to lack of organization of the contest and competitors were confused with how it was being run.

Throughout the day cloudy weather moved in threatening rain, causing officials to decide to run both the qualifiers and finals in one day. This meant that competitors going into the final rounds took up to ten runs to get to the finals. This seemed a bit excessive to competitors who attempted to talk organizers into reconsidering their decision to run it all on Saturday.

But the contest went on as ominous black clouds rolled in. By the afternoon a fight broke out in the finishing gate between two competitors as they came through the finishing gate. Accusations of unfair play in the course was sited over and over.

Current Canadian boardercross champion Suargo Doven who was allegedly pushed over by someone in the final rounds took the matter up with Mt. Hood Meadows.

"We're trying to be taken seriously in our sport," he told one of the race officials. "When there is no one spotting the course and people are getting pushed over and it isn't called that's wrong. If people don't start running boardercross the right way then how can our sport be accepted as something real.

TV cameras were on hand to film the discussion between Suargo and the official, but nothing changed and the course still wasn't spotted for the remaining runs. Claims of illegal moves ran rampid up until the final winners came across the finish gate.

In the women's winning heat Kim Bonsack of Bend, Oregon came down the final stretch of the contest with Canadian rider Mayumi Fukuda a few paces behind her. Mayumi, seeing that Kim was slowing into the finish, tucked for the finish line and both women crossed in the same moment. With no one standing at the finish line, officials determined Mayumi as the winner in spite of complaints from spectators and other contestants.

The men's heat was taken by So Cal's Paul Henderson with a decent lead on second place Jason McAllister.

Back to Vegetate '97 Index

SOL | Snowboarding Online