Canada’s Noah Bowman earns halfpipe skiing gold; teammate Karker takes silver

SECRET GARDEN, China – Calgary’s Noah Bowman won gold in the skiing halfpipe and Rachael Karker of Erin, Ont., took silver in the women’s event at a World Cup freestyle skiing event.

The third stop on the World Cup tour took place on the 2022 Olympic venue 777 days from the start of the Beijing Games.

Bowman sat second after his first run with 84.75 points. A second run score of 91.50 put him into first, and although he failed to improve on that mark with his third run, it was enough to hold off Americans Aaron Blunick (90.75) and Lyman Currier (89.75).

Karker also sat second after her first-run score of 88.75. She was unable to improve on her first run score to finish behind Valerya Demidova of Russia (92.5).

Fanghui Li of China rounded out the women’s podium at 86.50.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 21, 2019.