Anderson defies odds to capture gold at fourth attempt

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Posted: Saturday 27th February 2010 | 23:18

CANADIAN veteran Jasey Jay Anderson defied the odds to claim men's snowboarding parallel giant slalom gold at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

GOLDEN WONDER: At his fourth Olympics, Jasey Jay Anderson finally seals an elusive Olympic medal - and it's gold in front of his home crowd at Cypress Mountain (Getty Images)

In his fourth Olympic appearance, the 34-year old world champion recovered 0.76 seconds from Austria's Benjamin Karl after the first run to win by 0.35 in a dramatic big final.

The Canadian had made the most of his luck to reach the big final at Cypress Mountain, progressing through the last two rounds after opponents Rok Flander and Stanislav Detkov fell.

Meanwhile, World Cup leader Karl had stayed upright and regal throughout - a champion elect as he cruised through to the big final.

The Austrian dominated the first run and never looked like making his first mistake in the final as he raced clear to hand himself a seemingly unassailable lead.

But as the two set off in their medal run Anderson had nothing to lose and attacked wildly, gradually hauling in his 24-year old opponent.

Karl sensed the Canadian was on his tail and buckled, showing his vulnerability for the first time in the competition as he slipped on the snow.

And Anderson took advantage, maintaining his perfect line to race home for Canada's fourth gold from Cypress Mountain.

"It was a pretty surreal experience. I didn't start today thinking I was going to medal, especially after the first run. That (first run) was pretty brutal," said Anderson.

"I set my own goals so the goals that are set by someone else - it's their goal. I reached my goal.

"When I was in the final I was just really happy to have a medal but now my life work is complete.

"I have gold just to show everyone I did the work and you can't pin anything on me. This is my graduation plaque."

Canada's Own the Podium scheme has come in for widespread criticism through these Games but Anderson insists he'd be nowhere without the initiative that poured funding into Canadian athletes.

"It was our budget, it was our everything. I'd be sitting at home without Own the Podium," he added.

"Own the Podium is in large part taxpayers' money, so they invested and they believed in us. They believed we could be fruitful here and we were.

"And it was pretty amazing to have a big crowd like that. I mean, they were cheering for me, but they were mostly cheering for Canada."

France's Mathieu Bozzetto reached the small final for the second consecutive Games before, unlike four years ago, emerged on top to capture bronze.

Another slip from Detkov handed the Frenchman a 0.96 advantage after the first run. But after a technical fault before the second run, Detkov left early, crashing into the start gate and leaving Bozzetto clear to capture bronze.