February 17, 2010 (Whistler, BC) – The first training day on the Large Hill at Whistler Olympic Park was skipped by a large number ofÂ
Canada’s Trevor Morrice told us, “This is a fantastic facility. It’s my favourite jumping hill
American Peter Frenette, who lead the North Americans in the Normal Hill qualifications on Friday in 30th and ended up tied with team mate Nick Alexander in 41st on Saturday is from the same opinion. “It is a pity that the weather is not better, but the hills are great.”
With the Olympic Games in Canada winter sports like Ski Jumping are in the public eye and Mitchell is convinced that the sport’s popularity will increase in North America. “I really hope that I can do my best to inspire more Canadians and Americans to try ski jumping. It is an amazing sport and we must do our best to encourage more people to join us.”
But Morrice is not overly convinced. “For sure, the Olympics bring us athletes in the spotlight, and hopefully we can increase the number of fans for ski jumping. But I don’t think that we’ll be able to increase the number of athletes substantially, also because there are only two facilities in the whole country
On the first training day Frenette achieved 125m on his second round. Winners of the three training rounds were Anders Bardal (NOR) with 139m – just 2.5m ahead of second-placed Canadian Stefan Read – Janne Happonen (FIN) with 141m, and Normal Hill Olympic Champion, Simon Ammann (SUI) with 143m. Alexander’s best attempt was 129m while team mate Anders Johnson landed at 126m. Canadians Mitchell, Morrice and Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes
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