Four skiers help Canada win six water ski medals on Day 13
The Canadian water ski team hit the Ontario Place West Channel hard on Thursday, with four athletes helping Canada rack up six medals.
Whitney McClintock won a medal in all three of the day’s events on the water. She scored 3.5 buoys with the rope at 11.25 metres, to finish a half buoy ahead of American Regina Jacquess’ 3 at the same length. She followed that up by scoring 8030 in tricks to take silver. Her final event of the day was jumps, where she landed one at 47.7m to take silver behind Jacquess’ jump of 49.1m.
Whitney McClintock won three more medals on Day 13 of TO2015, to go with her overall gold from Day 12.
“Having friends, family and also seeing so many gold medals coming in for Canada built some pressure,” said McClintock. “But at the same time it fueled me. “The support of athletes and everyone has turned the pressure into excitement.”
Whitney’s brother Jason McClintock skied his way to slalom silver. At the end of the first round of skiers, McClintock and American Nate Smith were tied for the lead with each of them having completed one buoy with the rope at 10.25m. That meant the two of them needed to compete in a ski-off to decide the gold. McClintock went first, achieving 4 buoys at 10.25m, but Silver made it to 5 buoys at 10.25 to take the gold. In addition to the silver, McClintock also finished 4th in the men’s tricks event, missing out on bronze by only 10 points with a score of 9440.
Jaret Llewellyn added to his active Canadian Pan Am record, winning his 11th career medal at Pan Ams. Llewelyn won silver in the tricks event. The oldest competitor in the tricks event at 44 years-old, he finished with a final score of 10,550. In the jumps event, Llewellyn barely missed out on bronze with a jump of 59.9m. Chilean Felipe Miranda, who beat Llewellyn for the overall gold yesterday, also jumped to 59.9m. The tiebreaker to decide third place was based on preliminary scores, where Miranda finished higher than Llewellyn, so the Chilean was awarded the bronze.
Jaret Llewellyn won silver in the men’s tricks event on Day 13 to add to his silver in the men’s overall from Day 12.
The final medallist on the day was Ryan Dodd, who jumped his way to gold. Dodd was the final competitor in the jumps and he did not disappoint, flying out to a distance of 64.8m. Chilean Rodrigo Miranda, who is Felipe’s older brother (mentioned above), jumped to silver with his younger brother taking bronze.
“I’m in shock and awe still,” said Dodd. “When I made the jump, the weight of the world dropped off my shoulders.”
With the six medals from Day 13, the water ski/wakeboard team finishes competition at Toronto 2015 with a total of nine medals won. Wednesday they took gold in the women’s water ski overall (Whitney McClintock), gold in men’s wakeboard (Rusty Malinoski) and silver in the men’s overall (Jaret Llewellyn).
