Vancouver, April 5, 2023 – Gabrielle Rose Dinn (BC) and Jérémy Gagné (QC), who led the overall Toyo Canada Cup standings prior to the Calgary Junior National Championships, maintained their leads to take top honours at the close of the 2022-2023 season.
The stakes were high this weekend at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, where the Canadian Junior Freestyle Skiing Championships, including the halfpipe, slopestyle and Big Air events, were held. Also on the line, $12,000 in RESP contributions offered again this season by long time Freestyle Canada partner Toyo Tires for the top-3 male and female athletes in each of the two season long series.
Four Albertans seized the home court advantage to be crowned Junior National Champions. Sage Korth and Ty Kangus in Big Air and India Brown and Oliver Neil in halfpipe all captured gold medals in Calgary. In slopestyle, Quebec’s Hunter Belle Hall won the women’s gold medal, while British Columbia’s Drew Christensen won the men’s.
In the Toyo Canada Cup rankings, Dinn secured the number one spot, despite her seventh-place finish in slopestyle. The 15-year-old ended the season with an impressive 3,000 points. As such she was awarded a $1,500 RESP contribution provided by Toyo Tires for her season long performance.
In second and third place, Ava Aubry of Ontario (2,850 points) and Emilia Hoffmann of Ontario (2,700) received $1,000 and $500, respectively.
On the men’s side, Gagné’s results were not affected by his absence from Calgary, and he remained in first place overall. His closest competitor, Malcolm Farris of Nova Scotia, was unable to surpass him this weekend, despite winning the bronze medal in Big Air. Farris finished second in the overall rankings with a total of 2,700 points, 150 points behind Gagné.
Alberta’s Oliver Neil, gold medallist in the halfpipe, made the most of the Junior Nationals to climb into third place in the final Toyo Canada Cup standings, with a total of 2,550 points, edging out Jacob Durepos of Ontario.
In the freestyle disciplines (moguls and aerials), Victor Primeau and Charlie Fontaine, both of Quebec, were crowned Toyo Canada Cup champions earlier thanks to their accumulated 2,950 and 2,800 points in the National Championships, the Apex Classics and other Canada Cup series competitions.
Alec Haineault (2,850) and Gabriel Dion (2,550) completed the Québécois hat trick on the men’s side. Jessica Linton (BC) and Rosalie Gagnon (QC) finished behind Fontaine on the women’s side, with identical totals of 2,550.
“It has been amazing to see the exceptional performances of these young athletes throughout the winter vying for the Toyo Canada Cup honors. We are pleased to have a partner like Toyo who shares the values of Freestyle Canada in ensuring the wholistic development of these young athletes. The interest of Toyo tires not only in their athletic development of but also in the longer term education of the athletes is exemplary,” said Peter Judge, chief executive officer of Freestyle Canada.
Created by Freestyle Canada to ensure a high level of competition for all freestyle athletes in the country, the Canada Cup series has once again enabled athletes to gather together and develop their skills in all disciplines this year.
The circuit is primarily aimed at athletes in the Train to Train (T2T) and the Learn to Compete and Train to Compete (L2C/T2C) stages of Freestyle Canada’s Long-Term Athlete Development Model.
