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Del Bosco put it on the line in ski cross

Crash in final meant no medal but third place wasn't the goal

 

Chris Del Bosco could have finished third in Sunday's first ever Olympic ski cross competition after coming back from a weak start to contend for a medal.

Certainly the fans at Cypress Mountain would have appreciated it, as well as a wider Canadian audience desperate to win medals of any colour. But that's not  Del Bosco's style - he wanted gold and nothing else would do.

Rather than solidify his hold on third place Del Bosco hit a jump on the bottom third of the course with enough force that it put him within reach of second place and a shot at the gold. But it also threw him too high, too far, and he crashed hard to the course.

Norway's Audun Groenvold skied past into the third place position behind winner Michael Schmid of Switzerland and second place Andreas Matt of Austria. Canada, one of the leading countries in ski cross the past two seasons, could not win a medal at home.

There were some speed bumps along the way for the team, beginning with the overall strength of the freestyle ski team. Because of the number of skiers who also qualified for moguls and aerials, and the limit of 18 skiers for the entire team, the men's ski cross team was limited to just three racers despite the fact that seven had qualified for the Olympics.

Then there was the question of who got to race. Brian Bennett was injured before the Games and was out of contention. Stanley Hayer and Chris  Del Bosco qualified easily and Dave Duncan earned the third spot in a qualifier.

Then Duncan was injured in qualifying on Friday, fracturing his collarbone severely enough to require surgery. That opened the door to Brady Leman who was next on the list. Leman was already skiing on a fractured leg and went down hard in training on Saturday morning to end his Olympic dreams. That opened the door for Whistler's Davey Barr.

Despite all the drama, it looked like it was Canada's day. All three skiers progressed past the round of eight (32 skiers) to the quarterfinals, which is where things began to go sideways.

Because of seeding, Hayer found himself in the same heat as Del Bosco, but after Del Bosco took the hole shot there was no room to move and Hayer was boxed out.

Davey Barr finished second in his quarterfinal to advance to the semifinal, where another skier crashed in front of him and ruined any shot he had of advancing to the finals.

Meanwhile Del Bosco found himself in third place in his own semifinal battle after a weak start, but made a daring pass on a corner on the lower part of the course to place second and move to the finals.

Dave Barr placed second in the small final to finish six overall - as good as he could have expected after missing two training days on the sidelines.

In the final, Del Bosco got off to his second bad start in a row to find himself playing catch-up once again. That's when Del Bosco made a daring pass, and a more daring jump, to try to gain on the leaders.

"I have never filled out a goal sheet and said I wanted to finish third," said Del Bosco after the race. "I put it all out there. I saw that I was running out of track and attempted to pass on a risky bump."

Barr, the most veteran racer on the team, was happy with his performance.

"I knew I was an alternate and I was actually testing skis for the rest of the team (Saturday) and watching them across the valley training, and wishing I could be out there too," he said. "Then I got word that Brady had made his leg injury worse and that I was in, so I tried to focus. I saw a bit of video and managed to get three runs in (on the morning of the race). It was always a balance between doing too many runs and not having the legs left to race, and not doing enough and not knowing the course.

"I'm pretty pleased with my result, from where I came in... I was speeding up run by run, while everybody had two days of training on the course. It takes a bit to figure it out, so I just tried to relax and tried to be patient from the start."

Barr had some luck in the round of eight when the two middle skiers crashed, moving him from fourth to second.

"The guy in third is always pushing hard and number two is in the hot seat, and more often than not you can see if something's going to happen and sure enough it did, and I managed to get around (the crash)," he said.

When Barr started to race ski cross there were only a handful of pro events, no World Cup and no chance to compete in the Olympics. Now, the 32-year-old veteran had a chance of winning an Olympic medal.

"It's unbelievable. I've been thinking about this for years now since they made the announcement (ski cross would be in the Games), and to be here finally and see the awesome crowd and all the faces, it was really cool," he said.

Brady Leman watched from the sidelines, leaning on his crutches.

"It's definitely rare not to see one of our guys on the podium, he said. "Del was definitely in a position to podium there and crashed when he tried to go one better, but it happens sometimes. I don't think any of the athletes are going to have any regrets looking back."

As for his injury, Leman said he would use it as motivation for next season.

"I'm disappointed for sure (not to compete), but I've been pushing my injury for the last month and it caught up with me yesterday," he said. "It's just hard, wondering if you could have been the guy to bring it today. I liked the course and think I could have had a good day, but that's racing - I'll never know, so I'm not going to dwell on it. If you focus on the negatives it's going to drag you down, all you can do is use it as a stepping stone and move forward."