Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes used his home-country advantage to snag first place in the senior men's large and normal hill competitions at the Canadian National Ski Jumping Championships at Whistler Olympic Park (WOP) on Saturday (March 31).
It was the first time since the 2010 Winter Olympics that the jumps were in use at WOP and Boyd-Clowes wowed the crowd at the bottom of the hill, finishing off the large hill competition with the day's longest jump of 142 metres. His earlier jump was the day's second longest at 136.5 metres.
"It was a good week, it's great to get some training in and the conditions for my last jump were perfect," Boyd-Clowes said. "My biggest jump I got a lot of speed and just kept it simple."
The Toronto native said it was a great opportunity to challenge himself against a true legend of the sport, Martin Schmitt of Germany, who placed second in the large-hill competition.
"It's really good that the Germans and the Americans came out," he said. "Martin is one of the biggest stars in the sport. He's won Olympic medals, world championship medals so to compete against him was an honour."
Boyd-Clowes added that WOP is the best facility in the country and would like to see it used more.
Schmitt placed second with jumps of 128 and 130.5 metres. Schmitt, who won a silver medal in the team large-hill event in the 2010 Olympics, said he enjoyed the week.
"It was quite a nice week of training," he said. "The facilities here are great and hopefully these jumps can be used more often, especially for some of the younger Canadians."
Schmitt said the competition became a coming-out party for Boyd-Clowes.
"It was very impressive how well he jumped," he said. "He's improved a whole lot and he was a much stronger jumper than I was today. Hopefully he can continue his strong showings all the way to Sochi."
Schmitt's teammate Kevin Horlacher picked up the bronze at the competition with Edmontonian Dusty Korek finishing in fifth.
The event marked the first time that women jumped competitively on the hill and Calgary's Taylor Henrich led the way in normal-hill competition with jumps of 91.5 and 89.5 metres. Teammates Nata De Leeuw and Alexandra Pretorius placed second and third, respectively.
The senior men's podium for the normal hill was identical to the large hill with Boyd-Clowes, Schmitt and Horlacher bringing home the hardware. Kevin Bickner from Illinois won gold in the junior men's normal hill, with Rogan Reid and Joshua Maurer finishing second and third respectively.
American Adam Loomis won the men's Nordic combined competition with Calgary's Wesley Savill finishing second. Reid won the junior men's Nordic combined followed by teammates Matthew Soukup and Nicholas Madden. In the Nordic combined event, athletes ski jump and the results determine their start position for a pursuit-style cross-country ski race.
Brent Morrice of Ski Jump Canada said he was pleased with how the week at WOP went.
"It was a fantastic week and a great event," he said. "Mackenzie winning and beating Martin Schmitt was exhilarating. I'm also really happy with the progression we've seen with our females this week."
Morrice also thanked the volunteers and said that he hopes the championships become an annual event at WOP.
"We definitely want to make this an annual event on our calendar and I think it's a realistic goal to make it one," he said.
For more information and full results from the weekend, visit www.skijumpingcanada.com.
