Dutch snowboarder Sauerbreij wins parallel giant slalom

Vancouver's Loo finishes 12th

Last Updated: Friday, February 26, 2010 | 5:37 PM ET

By Dan Robson, CBC Sports

Nicolien Sauerbreij of the Netherlands competes in the women's parallel giant slalom snowboarding competition at the Vancouver Olympics on Friday. (Marcio Sanchez/Associated Press)

Nicolien Sauerbreij of the Netherlands won the women's parallel giant slalom snowboard competition at the Vancouver Olympics on Friday.

The 30-year-old Sauerbreij was behind Russia's Ekaterina Ilyukhina by 2-100ths of a second after the first run of the final.

But Sauerbreij managed to battle through the near-whiteout conditions in the second run at Cypress Mountain, edging out Ilyukhina by 2-10ths of a second to win the gold medal.

Austria's Marion Kreiner slipped past Germany's Selina Jorge in both runs of the small final to win the bronze medal.

Vancouver's Alexa Loo finished 12th in the event, the best-ever finish for a Canadian.

Loo missed a spot in the quarter-finals by 1-100ths of a second.

The 37-year-old finished 20th at the Turin Olympics in 2006. There were no Canadian female competitors in the parallel giant slalom snowboard event at the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics.

Montreal's Caroline Calvé and Calgary's Kimiko Zakreski finished 20th and 29th, respectively.