Canada’s Parrot and McMorris on snowboard big air podium at X Games

ASPEN, Colo. – Canadian teammates Max Parrot and Mark McMorris earned gold and bronze respectively in the men’s snowboard big air competition on Friday at the X Games.

Parrot, from Bromont, Que., beat Norway’s Marcus Kleveland by a single point 83 to 82 in the total standings to take gold. McMorris, from Regina, was third with 73.

“I definitely felt a lot of pressure this week because I won a gold medal last year and I wanted to back it up this year,” said Parrot. “It wasn’t an easy final, all the athletes were killing it. It was really hard.”

Montreal’s Sebastian Toutant was fourth with 67 points.

Also on Friday, Calgary’s Noah Bowman clinched bronze in the men’s superpipe final with a best run of 71 points.

“This was one of the crazier events I’ve ever seen, a lot of crashes and inconsistent riding,” said Bowman. “I’m really happy I was able to put down a run. It was a really good pipe, but so icy and fast. It was really hard to hold on and make it back into the pipe. I wanted to do more in the first run, just based on how it was going, I decided not to do one of my doubles.”

Cody Matechuk of Cochrane, Alta., earned bronze in men’s snow bikecross with a time of 14 minutes, 38.794 seconds.