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Canadians continue to show improvement

Ski team crawls its way up the rankings KO giant slalom debuts In introducing the Canadian Alpine Ski Team for this season, Alpine Canada Alpin President Ken Read didn’t promise any quick fix for our national medal drought, but asked followers o

Ski team crawls its way up the rankings

KO giant slalom debuts

In introducing the Canadian Alpine Ski Team for this season, Alpine Canada Alpin President Ken Read didn’t promise any quick fix for our national medal drought, but asked followers of the sport to be patient. The vision for the program is long-term, and one day the results will be there.

Since the start of the season improvement in the team’s performance has been noticeable; slow maybe, but steady.

On Dec. 11, Julien Cousineau of Lachute, Quebec, was a guinea pig in the first Europa Cup "knock-out" giant slalom event, which is new to the ski circuits this year.

Basically skiers race head-to-head against skiers in the top-30, as ranked by qualifying times, with the top skiers moving on to the next round. The 15 skiers moving on to another course, and are joined by the fastest losers, creating a field of 18 for the second round. The nine winners of that round then race solo and are ranked by time.

The goal was to create more excitement in the sport, and the format is expected to open up the podium to a lot of different skiers because the changing conditions of the course affect all racers, not just the lower ranked ones.

Cousineau, who was ranked 29 th after the qualifier, beat Austrian Hannes Rieter in the first round to move on. Cousineau lost that match-up to Andreas Ertl of Germany, and finished 16 th overall.

Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway took the top spot, followed by Hannes Reichelt of Austria and Gauthier De Tessieres of France.

Three Canadian women score in France

The women’s technical team was at Val d’Isere, France, on Dec. 12 to compete in World Cup giant slalom and super-G events.

Allison Forsyth of Nanaimo was looking good after the first run, finishing eighth. She had a slower second run, however, and dropped to 21 st on the day.

The other two Canadians to qualify for a second run, Geneviéve Simard of Val-Morin, Quebec, and Whistler’s Britt Janyk, both gained ground with excellent second runs. Janyk, who was 28 th after the first run, had the fifth-fastest second run to move up to 23 rd with her combined time.

"I didn’t ski the flats well on the first run, but then I was just looking for speed everywhere," she said. "I’ve got to build on today and know that I can put two good runs together."

Simard, who was 26 th after the first run, had the seventh fastest second run and ended the day in 18 th place.

"We get three in the top-30 consistently, but we still have to find that spark," said technical team head coach Mark Sharp. "We’re all searching for the top results. (We’re) getting one good run, but we’ve got to be able to do it twice."

Karen Putzer of Italy won her second World Cup in as many weeks, and was joined on the podium by Sonja Nef of Switzerland and two Austrians, Alexandra Meissnitzer and Michela Dorfmeister, who tied for third.

In the super-G on the following day, Simard was once again the top Canadian, finishing 16 th . It was a tight race, and Simard was less than 1.5 seconds back of the winner, Carole Montillet of France. Daniela Ceccarelli of Italy was second, and Dorfmeister of Austria third.

Simard, who finished sixth the weekend before in the Lake Louise super-G, was disappointed with her result.

"Our team had higher expectations," she said. "I tried to get myself in the same frame of mind that I had in Lake Louise, feeling a little bit of rage and really getting pumped up."

Also for Canada, Melanie Turgeon of Beauport, Quebec, was 23 rd overall; Emily Brydon was 35 th and Sophie Splawinski 45 th .

Grandi leads Canadian men

While the women’s World Cup wrapped up at Val d’Isere, the men were just getting started with downhill and giant slalom events.

In the downhill on Dec. 14, Stephan Eberharter of Austria continued his domination of the field with yet another gold medal – a clean sweep in the downhill this season. Teammates Klaus Kroell and Andreas Schifferer made it an Austrian sweep.

The top Canadian, starting 50 th and finishing 28 th , was rookie Erik Guay. It was the first time that the 21-year-old from Mont Tremblant, the national downhill and super-G champion, has cracked the top-30 in a World Cup downhill.

"They say the hardest thing is to get in there the first time," he said. "I’ve been close to the top-30 on almost every training run, but it’s nice to finally be in there. It’s a beginning."

Vincent Lavoie of Cap Rouge, Quebec, and Mike Giannelli of Burnaby were 45 th and 52 nd respectively.

Whistler’s Jeff Hume put it all on the line and crashed. At the time he was just 1.14 seconds off of Eberharter’s time at the interval, which would have been good enough for fourth place, if he had maintained that gap. "Either you go for it or you go safe," said Canadian speed coach Burkhard Schaffer. "Jeff was going good."

The 23-year-old was uninjured in the crash, his second good one of the season. If he keeps it up, he’ll soon be drawing comparisons with members the legendary Crazy Canucks downhill team.

In the giant slalom on Dec. 15, Thomas Grandi finished the extremely tight race in 15 th spot, less than a second back of Michael Von Gruenigen of Switzerland.

So far the 29-year-old has been 21 st and 13 th in the discipline, and he currently sits in 16 th overall in the GS rankings. More importantly, the 29-year-old from Canmore, Alberta, has yet to miss a gate in qualifying or racing this season.

"Knowing I can have a sub-par day and still finish top-15 builds confidence, and ultimately confidence is what allows you to take chances," he said. "Until you are consistent, there’s a fear of missing one opportunity, one race. I feel I can really start to take chances and push for top-10, top-5 results."

Guay, the only other Canadian in the race, failed to qualify for the second run. Jean-Philippe Roy recently underwent surgery on a broken arm after a crash, and is not expected to return until the New Year.