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3 1 1 Friday, A pril 7, 2 0 1 7 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | w w w .insideH A LT O N .com Kevin Nagel, Oakville Beaver Sports Editor, knagel@burlingtonpost.com Sports "Connected to your Community" Teens Buck, Kilmer-Choi finish am ong top eight at Czech R. world juniors By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver sta ff Perhaps the name should have given her an indication of things to come. It was a w eek before Christm as in M inne sota w hen m om entum really started to build for Kaylie Buck. Competing on North Amer ica' s top development circuit, the Oakville snowboarder earned her first Nor-Am Cup medal, taking the bronze in the parallel sla lom. The medal earned at B u ck Hill would k ick off a string of top results for the 16-year-old. She began 2 0 1 7 w ith another bronze in Lac Beauport, Que. and added a third in par allel giant slalom in Colorado the following week. That earned B u ck the opportunity to make her W orld Cup debut in Bulgaria in Febru ary. The youngest com petitor in the held by two years, B u ck finished 39th and 4 4 th , but the com petition gave her a taste of what the future could hold. "The W orld Cups were really eye-open ing. You're racing against people you con sider your idols, your role m odels," said the Grade 11 student at Oakville Trafalgar High School. "It was good to take it in at a young age. It opens up all these doors to see w hat' s out there." B u ck returned hom e w inning two more Nor-Am medals (silver in New York and bronze in Collingwood) before returning to Europe last m onth for the Ju nio r W orld Cham pionships in the Czech Republic. "NorAms were the m ain focus," B uck said, In left photo, Oakville s Kaylie Buck finished sixth in the parallel giant slalom at the world junior championships in the Czech Republic. Oakville's Riley Kilmer-Choi (in file photo above) made the finals in both of his events at the world junior championships, highlighted by an eighth-place finish in the parallel slalom, the 18-year-old also enjoyed a strong season on the developmental Nor-Am circuit. | photos submitted "so to have good results, it gave me a boost of confidence." Competing on her 17th birthday, Buck posted the sixth-best qualifying time in the parallel slalom and then defeated Italy' s Alice Lombardi in the opening round. In the quar ter-finals she was edged by Switzerland' s La rissa Gasser by 0.11 seconds. Gasser would go on to claim the bronze medal while Buck finished sixth. "Being one of the younger riders, it was encouraging to know I can still race with the best of them ," said Buck, who finished 21st in the giant slalom. "It was a really cool op portunity; you're n ot ju s t representing your self but your country. It was really special;my result felt m uch more m eaningful." Jo in in g B uck in the Czech Republic was O akville' s Riley Kilm er-Choi, who built off a strong world ju n ior performance in Slovakia last year by m aking the quarter-finals for the second year in a row. "Last year was even m ore than I had hoped for," the 18-year-old said. "It was a huge boost of confidence for me. It was my first indication that I can be com petitive at the international level." Kilm er-Choi found him self m atched up against the same opening-round opponent, Korea's W an-He Cho, as last year and again earned the win. Though he was edged by less than one-third of a second by Italy' s Gabriel Messner in the quarter-finals, Kilm er-Choi matched his eighth-place finish from 2016. The next day, he qualified for his first par allel slalom final, going on to finish 15th. Kilm er-Choi began snowboarding when his was seven, following his parents' lead. It wasn't long before he was drawn into racing. "Being on my board, I love the feeling of speed and carving, and to do it in the parallel format we do never fails to give an adrenalin ru sh," he said. He made his world ju nior debut two years ago in China, where he narrowly missed qualifying for the finals in both of his races. But seeing another local snowboarder, Grif fin Haines, crack the top-16 inspired him. Achieving that goal last year has led to a breakthrough this season with his m ost con sistent year on the Nor-Am circuit, where he has top-eight finishes in seven of his 10 races. "This year on the NorAm has been by far m y best and can heavily be attributed to my result from ju n ior worlds. It further fueled m y drive to becom e a better racer," said Kilm er-Choi, who lives and trains in Colo rado from November to April while com plet ing high school online. His results at world ju n iors also earned him a spot on the national development team, "w hich led to many amazing oppor tunities to train w ith new coaches w ith new WHAT ARE YOU CROWDFUNDING for? Clean out your garage and sell stuff on Tradyo. fuellocal.com is an online platform to raise money through crowdfunding: an opportunity for a collection of individuals to make donations in support of a cause. Create your fundraising campaign or help fund local initiatives at fuellocal.com C r " O w 2 C " l 2 i V v ^ tS: Start your campaign now! S./ppO'-- loeJ P tradyo local. Visit www.tradyo.com eB e.ri+ies