28 - North Shore News — Wednesday, January 1S, 2000 Kimberley Frenette of West Vancouver and North Vancouver's Sherwin Issac shared in a $1,200 second prize at the 27th annual WBA Swiss 900 Tournament Jan. 8-9 in Burnaby’s Brentwood Lanes. North Van's Sandra Shott, Glen Rayson and Daryt Burchynsky and Jessica Harmon of West Van “vere on a team that placed third and won $1,000. Bob Mackin Sports Reporter bmackin@nsnews.com THE fog failed to fully foil the second jewel in the Vans Triple Crown of Snowboarding. But too much air cancelled the big air competition at Mount Sevmour. The International Snowboarding Federation’s pro tour was met with the wild, wesc coast weather, which forced two-thirds of the event to be cancelled. Despite the climate chaos, a festive atmosphere reigned with bands like Gob and MxPx dishing out the tunes. Poor visibility cancelled the snow- board cress event. But the fog lifted around 4 p.m. Saturday to allow the halfpipe contest to proceed. It lasted undl after midnight. Ross Powers and Kim Stacey were the top riders cf the 150 entered. Powers won $10,000 US, beating Canada’s Trevor Andrew of Whistler and Norway’s Arild Brun Kjeldaas. Shaun White of North Vancouver was 20th. Powers is aiming for the Triple Crown championship. He also won the first race Dec. 3-5, 1999 in Breckenridge, Colo. “I knew the weather would be bad when I carne down from Whistler, but I knew it would be a good contest any- way,” Powers said. Kim Stacey won the women’s half- pipe and $7,500 prize by beating Natasza Zurek of Vancouver and Anne Molin Kongsgard of Norway. A windstorm forced cancellation of the big air competition Sunday. Mount Seymour general manager Eddie Wood is hopeful the Triple Crown will make a second appearance here next season. “There’s that weather chance to be taken at any area. It was unfortunate that it happened, but the spirits remained high,” Wood = said. 9 “(Vans = and Snowboard Canada} are very keen to look at this venue again for next year.” It will be run, along with the snow- board cross, at the third jewel of the Triple Crown, Feb. 24-27 in Sierra at Tahoe. : The Triple Crown stop at Mount Seymour will be featured in the coming months on ESPN, the American cable sports network. Wood said 3,000 people came to Mount Seymour cach day during the Triple Crown. ikini waxing added to Olympic exp AT the time he invented the modern Olympics, I'l wager Baron Pierre de Coubertin never thought there’d be a raging controversy over the size of bikini bot- toms. Bikini bettoms to be worn a litde over a century later by NEWS photo Paul McGrath FOG and wind may have cancelled two-thirds of last weekend’s compe- tition at Mount Seymour, but it didn’t dampen the festive spirits at the second jewel of the Vans Triple Crown of Snowboarding. leyball in the sand didn’t arrive on the Olympic beach until 1996 in Atlanta. The game was a palpable hit under the hot Georgia sun- shine, the stands packed every day with mostly male specta- tors. They may not have known much about beach voi- leyball, but they knew what they liked to look at: good looking, athletic young women wearing only the bare, women athletes competing in beach volleyball at his beloved Games, Indeed, the concept of women, dressed or undressed, competing in anything at the Olympics was well beyond his idea of a revival of the ancient Greek sports and religious fes- tival. Women didn’t become part of the show until 1928 and two-persons-a-team vol- you'll pardon the expression, necessities. Reuben Acosta, the Mexico-based president of the International Volleyball Federation, recently decreed that to make the sport even more attractive to TV, the women must wear smaller bikini bottoms ~~ just a six- centimetre (2 smidgen over two inches) rise at the hips. One must presume that Senor Acosta, who runs inter- national volleyball the way Castro runs Cuba — absolute- ly — was given a little push by U.S. network television, which pays most of the Giympic bills. In any event, the International Olympic Committee has approved. And, inasmuch as the IOC is Lette ete ee LACROSSE BOX Boys and girls aged four to 16 are invited to register for minor lacrosse at the Lonsdale Recreation Centre Friday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The North Shore Minor Lacrosse season runs April through June. Home games are at Lonsdale Arena, with practices at one of four outdoor boxes. For further information and registration fees, please cal! 983-6444, ext. §233. PLAY Grouse skier home to race Nabob Cup goes Thursday Bob Mackin Sports Reporter bmackin@nsnews.com HOT on the heets of first and third place finishes at Lake Louise, North Vancouver’s Trevor Bruce will compete at Grouse Mountain this weekend. The 19-year-old alum- nus of the Grouse Mountain Tyee Ski Club will be in his first major race at Grouse in seven years. He'll be skiing the slalom and giant slalom at the Nabob Coffee Cup. The Federation International de Ski-sanc- tioned event will be perco- lating at Grouse from Thursday to Sunday. Skiers from across Canada, the US., Austria and Italy will be converging on Grouse. Giant slalom races will run Thursday and Friday at 8:30 am., 9:50 am., 1 p.m. and 1:20 p.m. Slalom is Saturday and Sunday. Races are scheduled for 9 am., 10:50 a.m., 12:45 p-m. and 2:15 p.m. “It feels real good to come home to a home crowd,” said Bruce, the only Team B.C. member not living in Whistler. “I can remember when I was (young), looking up to the older guys and not really realizing that I’d be one of the older guys winning the races.” Bruce won the Super G event Jan. 10 in the Hershey Alberta Cup at Lake Louise in one minute, 18.02 seconds. He also made up principally of geri- atric gaffers, can we safely assume they're also a bunch of dirty old men? String bikinis at Athens in 2004? Whatever, Australia’s vol- leyball women are kicking up a sandstorm. And modesty has nothing to do with it, which seems in character. After all, wasn’t it the Australian nation- al women’s soccer team that posed en masse in the buff last year for several photos, some of chem full frontal, to pro- mote fund-raising calendar sales? It was. The big reason for the fuss, placed third in the downhill in 1:12.26. Bruce said the Grouse course is competitive with others on the = circuit, though it's not as steep. TREVOR Brice is coming home to Grouse to race. The races wiil be run down Half Peak to Expo. The season lasts through mid-April. He’s aiming to be one of five Canadians to qualify at Quebec’s Mont- Ste Anne for the Feb. 19- 27 world junior champi- onships, which will also be held at Mont-Ste Anne. — Bruce and the B.C. men’s team, coached by Duran Grasic, tain and compete nationally and internationally year-round with over 120 days on snow per year. They attend off- season glacier ski camps in Whistler, Mt. Bachelor and Mt. Hood, Ore. Mountain biking, running, weight- training and even gymnas- tics are part of the training regimen, They compete in as many as 50 competitions around North America and Europe. : ECNnSées says University of B.C. women’s volleybali coach Erminia Russo, is the weather. T's not about sexism. It’s | about goose bumps. She should know. Russo and U. of Taronto coach Christine Dranich are Carada’s top team in beach volleyball. Indeed, they start leav: . of absence next week te compete on the 10-tournament pro circuit, first stop Rio, where the prize moncy exceeds a million bucks and the top teams can make a good living. See Un-dress next page