Vernon’s Gaskell wins gold in New Zealand

Vernon’s Elena Gaskell is fast becoming a name to watch on the Canadian freestyle skiing team.

Gaskell, who turns 17 on Sept. 17, won her first career World Cup gold medal on Friday in Cardrona, New Zealand, scoring 170.40 points to take the Big Air title.

Gaskell landed a switch dub 12 — the biggest trick by a female competitor to date — to top the podium in a dream start to the season.

“It’s such a good jump, it gives you a lot of time to spin and I had a feeling that I could put that jump down like I had in training and it worked,” said Gaskell. “It was a big jump and I struggled with it all week. I chose to compete with two tricks that I knew I could land and I was comfortable with. “I am pretty happy with my result.” Canadian teammate Yuki Tsubota, of Whistler, won bronze in the women’s event.

Evan McEachran of Oakville, Ont., made it three medals for Canada with a silver in the men’s Big Air. Overall, it was a strong showing for Canada’s slopestyle team at its first World Cup of the season.

In fact, every Canadian athlete qualified for the final of the Big Air event.

That included McEachran (2), Alex Beaulieu-Marchand of Quebec City (6), Teal Harle of Campbell River (8) and Noah Morrison of Vernon (10) among the men, plus Gaskell (1), Tsubota (3) and Dara Howell of Huntsville, Ont., (5) for the women.

For Gaskell, this win adds to the fourth place she earned last week at the FIS World Junior Championships also held in New Zealand.

In the men’s event, McEachran and Morrison won their respective qualifying rounds before the final. McEachran then delivered another solid performance for an overall score of 180.40, which earned him second place on the podium.