Charlotte Bankes edges closer to Crystal Globe triumph after another World Cup victory at Mount St. Anne’s

Charlotte Bankes moved a step closer to a Crystal Globe triumph with snowboard cross World Cup victory in Mount St. Anne’s on Saturday.

The Brit has been in fine form and picked up her fourth World Cup victory in a row to significantly boost her chances of overall glory in Sunday’s final race of the season.

Bankes fought back from a poor start to overhaul closest rival Chloe Trespeuch and strike in a time of 1:02.83, with the Frenchwoman taking silver and Lindsey Jacobellis securing bronze.

Victory for Bankes means that she now holds an 88-point lead over Trespeuch in the World Cup standings, meaning that she is a sizable favourite to claim the Crystal Globe on Sunday.

Sitting on 590 points, Trespeuch would need to win the final race and hope Bankes dramatically underperforms to overtake the Brit’s 678 points.

Elsewhere, Eliot Grondin gave the home crowd something to cheer about in the men’s event with a gold medal on home snow.

The Canadian won the final in a time of 55.98s, finishing six-hundredths of a second ahead of silver medallist Jakob Dusek of Austria.

Spaniard Lucas Eguibar took bronze, with Italian Lorenzo Sommariva just missing out on a medal in fourth.

Despite falling at the semi-final stage, Martin Noerl still leads the overall World Cup standings ahead of the final race of the season.

However the German’s lead has been cut down by Eguibar, with the Spaniard now on 386 points and Noerl on 410.

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