Yukon skier goes big, just misses podium at Canada Games

Yukon skier Kyran Allen came just short of picking up the first medal for the territories at the 2019 Canada Winter Games Thursday, putting up a fourth-place finish in the big air competition.

The fourth-place finish is the highest for a northern athlete so far at this year's games.

"I felt pretty good," said Allen. "I've been sending it all day, and getting pretty tired, but it feels pretty good right now."

In the big air event, competitors have two opportunities to complete a trick off a giant ramp, which is judged for difficulty, distanceand landing. The top 12 skiers in qualifying including Allen and Rodden took part in the afternoon's finals.

On his first attempt in the finals, Allen completed a cork 1080 degree spin to briefly put himself on top of the standings, finishing the first of two runs in fourth.

Allen then went for the same trick in the second round to put himself into medal position, but "bigger and better," he said. He over-rotated on his jump and crashed, leaving him in fourth.

"I went big, and I went a little too big, and couldn't stop it," said Allen.

The result continues a big week for Yukon's freestyle ski team at the games: teammate Nico Rodden finished 8th in the big air event, and also put up a 9th place finish in yesterday's slopestyle.

Allen and Rodden, both 20, are training in Kelowna and Calgary respectively, though they called Yukon's Mount Sima their home.

Rodden said that a lack of snow in his early season meant that he didn't get to train for the games as much as he'd hoped, but considering that, "it went well."

"All in all, I'm pretty proud with how it turned out," he said.

The freestyle skiing competition now moves on to Calgary for the halfpipe event. Allen didn't sound as confident about another high finish for his team as the week goes along, but said that with three top 10s and his fourth-place finish in the bag already, Team Yukon is "feeling pretty good."

"I don't know how we're going to do from here," he said. "But we'll see how it goes."