Chilliwack skier Reece Howden raced to a bronze medal at last weekend’s Canadian U-19 Nationals.
The 18 year old downhill skier was part of a packed field tackling the course at the Nakiska Ski Resort. Located in Kananaskis, AB., it’s the same hill that hosted alpine events at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.
The Chilliwackian gutted his way through a men’s downhill race, finishing with the third fastest time among U-19 skiers at 1:01.97.
Clocked against older skiers and national team members racing in the same event, Howden posted the sixth fastest time.
Howden added a 14th overall finish in the Super G race.
He covered 1860 metres in 1:12.61, finishing .82 seconds behind Tyler Werry, a 25 year old national team skier from Calgary.
The silver medalist was a 20 year old.
The bronze medalist was a 21 year old.
Compared to skiers his own age or younger, Howden was sixth best, impressive considering he was battling a virus all weekend.
Howden also competes in ski-cross and is just two weekends removed from a gold medal at a NorAm event at Cooper Mountain, CO.
Competing against a handful of athletes from Europe and Asia Feb. 22, Howden was timed at faster than 90 kilometres per hour, leading wire to wire to earn his second career NorAm win.
His previous gold came the weekend before at the Sunday River Ski Resort in Maine.
He’s also collected two silvers and a bronze on the NorAm circuit this season.
Howden is building up to the U-21 World Juniors which take place this month in Italy.
He’ll also be on TV in March as part of the Future Legends show on WinHD TV.
The program highlights up-and-coming athletes who are viewed as potential Olympians.
Howden will show up in episode 10, airing Mar. 20 at 9 a.m.