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Brydon completes nationals medal sweep

Biggs, Kucera among rookie skiers crowned at Pontiac GMC Canadian Championships

The Pontiac GMC Canadian Championships took place this week at Le Massif and Mont Ste. Anne in Quebec, with members of the national team, development team and provincial teams battling it out for titles.

While national team skiers were favoured in every discipline, several young skiers also made their mark this year to show the depth of the alpine skiing program.

The downhill at Le Massif was the first event on the calendar. On the women’s side, Fernie’s Emily Brydon took the title with a comfortable margin of more than a second. Kelly Vanderbeek of Ontario was second, followed by Quebec’s Genevieve Simard. Whistler’s Britt Janyk was seventh out of 44 competitors.

From the Whistler Mountain Ski Club, Charlotte Whitney was 32 nd , Alison Leighton 36 th , Danielle Robson 38 th and Anastasia Skryabina 40 th .

On the men’s side, World Cup rookie John Kucera claimed the men’s title, edging out American Justin Johnson. Eric Guay of Mont Tremblant, the defending champion, was third after a costly mistake.

From Whistler, Robbie Dixon was 21 st , Jeff Hume 22 nd , Ben Chaddock 28 th , Trevor White 29 th , Scott Hume 34 th , Trevor Conroy 48 th , and Matt Holler 54 th out of 72 starters.

The following day, both Brydon and Kucera repeated their feats in the super G, while setting up Brydon to be the first woman to win gold in all five disciplines.

This time it was Genevieve Simard who finished second in the women’s race, while Allison Forsyth of Nanaimo took third. Britt Janyk was 12 th , Danielle Robson and Alison Leighton were 33 rd , and Anastasia Skryabina and Charlotte Whitney were 40 th and 41 st respectively.

In the men’s race, Kucera was followed by Brad Spence of Calgary, while Stefan Guay, a junior, was third. His older brother Erik went off course and did not finish the race.

Whistler’s Michael Janyk, a technical skier, was fifth, Jeff Hume was 11 th , Scott Hume 15 th , Robbie Dixon 20 th and Matt Holler 48 th .

The technical events took place at Mont Ste. Anne, starting with the slalom. The women raced on day one, with Emily Brydon going three-for-three. "As I entered the course this morning, I knew I could win, I wanted to win," said Brydon. "Although I don’t participate in too many slalom events, it really is my passion."

With the win in the slalom, Brydon also took the combined title for her combined downhill and slalom results. With four gold medals, Brydon matched the mark set by Nancy Greene in 1967.

Whistler’s Britt Janyk, the reigning champion for the last three years, settled for a close second. "Both of my runs were good and clean but I think Emily was faster at the bottom of the course. At the start, I was so relaxed, we were joking the whole time. It really feels good to end the season this way and though I’m mentally tired, I really did good today."

Third went to World Cup rookie Brigitte Acton.

The Whistler skiers have more technical experience than speed experience, and it showed in the rankings. Anastasia Skryabina was 20 th , Alison Leighton 24 th and Charlotte Whitney 35 th .

In the men’s slalom, it was development team star Patrick Biggs of Ottawa who took the top spot. He cracked the top-10 in his first World Cup appearance this year at mid-season, and followed up with two more top-10 results, and was a strong favourite heading into the nationals.

"I had a really good first run which gave me good momentum to win the title," said Biggs. "At the beginning of the season, I didn’t think I would go so far in slalom. I’m really happy with my race."

Michael Janyk, the defending champion, was second to Biggs, coming back from fifth place after his first run. "I didn’t think my first run was very good," he said. "I made a lot of mistakes. But I did so well in the second run, skiing the ruts."

American Paul McDonald finished third.

Whistler’s Scott Hume was ninth, Jeff Hume 22 nd , and Trevor Conroy 44 th .

In the women’s giant slalom, all eyes were on Brydon to see if she could set a new record with all five medals. She held the lead for most of the race, until she was bumped back by Genevieve Simard and an extremely determined Allison Forsyth, who has been struggling to re-establish her World Cup form after being sidelined with tendonitis in her hips.

Brydon finished third, but ensured herself a spot in the history books with five medals in four days.

"Going for a win was a long shot day," she admitted. "It’s tough to let the record go away but I skied well today and that’s what counts."

Whistler’s Britt Janyk, a past national GS champion, just missed the podium in fourth.

Anastasia Skryabina and Daniel Robson were 30 th and 31 st , and Alison Leighton 38 th .

The men’s GS wrapped up the championships. Francois Bourque of New Richmond, Quebec took the title ahead of Erik Guay and John Kucera. Michael Janyk was fourth.

Whistler’s Scott Hume was 10 th , but also won the men’s championship title for the Pontiac GMC Cup series, which included a $5,000 cheque from General Motors of Canada.