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Alpine skiers charging in speed events

Williamson, Taylor earn pair of medals

The B3 team of Chris Williamson and guide Bobby Taylor earned silver and bronze medals this week in the visually impaired downhill and super G at the Paralympics.

Williamson and Taylor were the fastest team of the day Sunday, winning the downhill by more than three seconds, but fell to second place by 0.77 seconds when the B2 team of Gerd Gradwohl and guide Karl Heinz Vachenauer squeaked ahead after the timing adjustment.

Third place went to Nicolas Berejny and guide Sophie Troc of France, although standings could have been different if Berejny hadn’t slid the last 15 metres or so of the race on his back.

Even though he was the favourite going in, Williamson was ecstatic with his medal.

"It’s a great way to start," he said, adding that he will be competing in all four alpine events.

"Last time we were in Salt Lake City I tore my MCL the day before the downhill, which was a bad way to start.

"It was a good competition, the times were really close, and it was a fight to the end to be on the podium, so I’m happy with the result."

Williamson, the son of an Olympic speed skater, was diagnosed with a condition called Taxplasmosis at a young age as was told he would be completely blind by his late teens. He continues to defy expectations, however, and retains some vision. His guide is a dark blur on a field of white, but they still use headsets to communicate on their way down the course.

Taylor goes first, calling out turns, gates, and other course features as they go, and Williamson lets Taylor know when he passes those features so his guide can speed up or slow down without looking over his shoulder.

At speeds of over 110 km/h, that could be dangerous says Williamson. That speed is also why downhill is Williamson’s favourite event.

"I’m going down the course faster than most people drive, and I can’t drive at all so it’s a little twist of fate," he said.

"It takes a lot of trust in your guide. At the speeds we’re going we have to trust each other so we can focus on the effort."

Getting coordinated is hard work. Williamson lives and works in Toronto, while Taylor is based in Vancouver. They train most of the time on their own, and Taylor spends a few days training in Ontario, and Williamson a few days training in B.C., usually at national team training camps.

They teamed up for a bronze medal in Tuesday’s super G, but it was a bit controversial.

The first team to the bottom was Gerd Gradwohl and guide Karl Heinz Vacehauer of Germany, the winners of the gold medal in downhill, followed By Gianmaria Dal Maistro of Italy and Radomir Dudas of Slovakia. Williams and Taylor were fourth until the judges determined that Gradwohl and his guide were too separated in the bottom section, and were disqualified.

According to rulebook, the guide and skier cannot be more than one change of direction a apart (one gate) on the way down in speed events, and Gradwohl and Vacehauer were separated by two turns, or two gates, near the bottom.

Although that bumped Williamson and Taylor up to the bronze medal spot, Williamson is still against the rule because he doesn’t see how a blind skier could possibly benefit by the guide being too far out front. He has been disqualified in the past for the same reason.

Woolstencroft makes amends with silver in super G

Vancouver’s Lauren Woolstencroft claimed the silver medal in the standing super G Monday, which relieved some of the frustration of a fourth place finish in Saturday’s downhill.

Meanwhile Whistler’s Matt Hallat survived a near crash on a dangerous corner to finish 27 th in a field of 55 racers.

Woolstencroft, the defending super G champion from Salt Lake in 2002 and the reigning standing world champion in every World Cup category this season, hoped to win gold in the super G but was excited with the silver.

"I’m very satisfied," she said. "I was not very happy with a fourth in downhill but I felt strong on my skis.

"Silver is good, but I’m always going for gold. I’ve been skiing well all year, I just needed to relax."

Her super G performance in Sestriere was more impressive than her victory at Salt Lake. In the last Paralympics she won gold while competing against a handful other skiers in her specific classification. In the 2006 Paralympic Games, which adopted the more wide open World Cup classification system, she competed against 20 of the top women from around the world in the standing category.

"It was a lot harder to win silver, this time around," she said. "There were more of us in the category and the other girls are getting better and better every year.

For the men, Whistler’s Hallat was happy with his result, considering he nearly finished up in the fence after losing control after the first split time. Until that moment he was just three seconds off the pace, which put him in the running for a spot in the top-15.

Although several other racers crashed in the same area, Hallat said he enjoyed everything about the course and the conditions.

"The top is a lot wider, really fast to ski, and that always helps, but it got a lot harder further down. I was barely hanging for some parts," he said.

"For me it was quite good. Just having a solid race meant a lot to me, and being able to hold on and get a time meant a lot to me.

"I’m a better technical skier than a speed skier, so I’ll be taking some confidence into the next events."

Hallat did not finish Saturday’s downhill.

The winner of the men’s standing super G was Walter Lackner of Austria in 1:11.87, followed by Gern Schoenfelder of Germany, the downhill winner, just two one-hundredths of a second later.

Toby Kane of Australia came out of nowhere to finish an ecstatic third in 1:12.03. He almost went wide heading into the second to last set of gates, but managed to pull out in time and charge the bottom of the course.

"I thought I’d lost it, but somehow I managed to pull up at the last second," he said.

He also had a message or all the Aussies in Whistler.

"My brother is spending a year there, and I hope they’re having heaps of fun!"

Joines happy with bronze medal

Team USA rookie Laurie Stephens blew the competition in the women’s sit ski super G on Tuesday, to pick up her second gold medal of the 2006 Paralympics. Nobody came close to her time of 1:19.16. Stephens also won Sunday’s downhill.

Second belonged to Japanese veteran Kuniko Obinata, followed by Canada’s Kimberly Joines.

Joines was actually faster than Obinata at the first interval, but got slightly out of control in the bottom section.

"It happened when I hit the jump. I got a lot more air than I expected after my training run… and where I landed was about three feet past where I expected to be, so it took a few turns to get back in line," she said.

"I really can’t complain (about the bronze). Super G is one of my favourite events, so I think I would have been disappointed without a medal."

Joines is in her first Paralympics after joining the national team this year. She’s already looking ahead to 2010, where she hopes to be a contender in every event.

"I take racing quite seriously, it’s a job for me," she said.

This week Joines is also racing in the giant slalom and slalom, which she calls her worst discipline. Joines went off course in Sunday’s downhill and did not finish.

In the men’s sitting super G, German racer Martin Braxenthaler set the bar high on the second run, and held the leader position through another 38 racers to take gold. Harald Eder and Robert Froehle of Austria were second and third.

Canadian sit skiers Jeffrey Penner and Brad Lennea were 23rd and 24th respectively, while Scott Patterson was one of six DNF’s.

Whistler’s Lennea finished 11 th in Sunday’s downhill in his first Paralympic appearance. He was actually seventh in real time, but adjustments moved him back four spots.

"I just had the run of my life, I’ve never had such a spectacular run," said an overjoyed Lennea. His goal is to be a top competitor by 2010, and although he hoped to finish somewhere in the top-15 he didn’t expect to find himself in the top-12.

"In the first training run I was 10th, but yesterday I had a crappy run. I think I over-inspected and was too distracted going gate to gate. Today (Sunday) I just went out nice and casual and just took each gate as it came, and just enjoyed the moment," he said.

Always in the back of his mind is 2010, and a chance to race at home.

"You go through a lot of emotions over the course of a season, you’re up and down, and there were times when I asked myself if I would make it to 2010, if I would stick around. Then at the opening ceremony, during the parade to our spots, the crowed was just going nuts. Italy came in last and the place just erupted. For that alone I’d stick around to 2010."