Britt Janyk was the top Canadian at last weekend's alpine World Cup, coming in 10 th in the downhill competition in Haus im Ennstal, Austria.
Her finish in one minute, 09.81 seconds on Jan. 9 was a vast improvement over the previous day, when she came in 31 st .
"Being out of the top 30, I was going to make sure that didn't happen again," she said. "My goal was just to race like I can and let the skis go and be clean on the ski. The placing shows that I did that but more importantly I executed what I wanted to do on my run and that is a step forward from yesterday."
Skiers faced difficult conditions in the race, with fog, snow and a shortened Krummholz piste delaying action. It forced competitors to adjust, but for Janyk that wasn't much of a problem.
"I think I am good in snow and fog," she said. "I think it's just your attitude. You get into the start gate and it's just a race. It's about attacking as much as you can.
"You have to adjust to the shorter course. It means you have less time to make up speed and if you make a mistake you have no chance. You have to push the limits but it has to be perfect as well. It's important to be precise."
Other Canadian results on that day saw Emily Brydon of Fernie, B.C. come in 21 st in 1:10.04. West Vancouver's Georgia Simmerling, competing in her third European World Cup downhill, placed 46 th in 1:11.00 and Shona Rubens of Canmore, Alberta came 51 st in a time of 1:11.21.
"My personal motto is to focus on the things I can control," Simmerling said. "The weather is certainly not one of them. So I just have to stay focused on skiing better and learning from each run."
The weekend saw American Olympic favourite Lindsey Vonn win a hat trick of competitions, two super Gs and a downhill. In a super G on Jan. 10 she finished in one minute, 26.69 seconds, beating out Sweden's Anja Paerson and Italiy's Nadia Fanchini, who came second and third. The wins marked the 26 th , 27 th and 28 th World Cup championships of her career.
Janyk, again the top Canadian, came up short, tying for 16 th place in 1:28.83.
"It's a little frustrating, I'd like to be in the top 10," Janyk said after the race. "Lindsey has won every day. The challenge is definitely there for the rest of us. She's racing hard and getting the wins. You have to congratulate her."
Rubens came in 30 th in that race with a time of 1:29.84 while Brydon placed 36 th . Simmerling skied off the course after misjudging a turn late in her run.
In a super-G race on Jan. 9, Vonn came in at 1:09.12, just 0.14 seconds better than Nadja Kamer of Switzerland and 0.16 seconds better than France's Ingrid Jacquemod. All competed after fog delayed that race for two hours.
The weekend saw injuries to Austrian Olympic hopeful Maria Holaus, who hurt her right ankle and will not compete in the Games, while Swiss skier Dominique Gisin is out indefinitely with a right knee injury.
