The final qualifying events to put together the Team Canada snowboard cross team occurred on Friday and Saturday (Jan. 11 and 12) but Squamish's Ma毛lle Ricker took a backseat to teammate Dominique Maltais at the races in Androrra.
Ricker placed eighth on Friday and sixth on Saturday, but it was Maltais who picked up gold medals in both races.
Saturday's final was likely a preview of the competitors who will battle for gold in Sochi and Maltais said she wanted to prove herself.
"It was great to have probably the top-six-riders in the world right now all in the Big Final," Maltais said in a statement. "That doesn't happen too often, so I really wanted to show them my speed. I did that for three quarters of the race and I'm really pleased with the performance."
Ricker and Maltais will be the two female Canadian snowboard cross athletes heading to Sochi next month.
For the men, Squamish's Rob Fagan placed 35th on Saturday and 12th on Sunday. Competition on Sunday marked one of the best days of the season for the men, with four Canadians in the top 20. Kevin Hill from Vernon had the best showing and finished sixth.
Calgary's Chris Robanske has already qualified for Sochi and Canada has three other racer spots that could potentially represent Canada at the Games. As of Jan. 9, Fagan was third among Canadian men in snowboard cross and will find out if he's going to Russia next Tuesday (Jan. 21).
For more information and full results from all the races, visit www.canadasnowboard.ca.
