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Janyks rule home championships

Alison Leighton claims overall Pontiac Cup title
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Whistler's Britt Janyk stands centre podium after winning national downhill last week. Photo by Scott Brammer, coastphoto.com

Whistler skiers rose to the challenge to defend their home turf in the Pontiac GMC Canadian Championships last week, making the most of conditions that only a local could appreciate. Britt Janyk earned two national titles, downhill and super G, Michael Janyk earned another slalom title, and Alison Leighton, who is with the B.C. Team, nudged her way past members of the national and development teams to climb the super G podium behind Britt. Leighton also claimed the overall Pontiac Cup title.

The races took place from March 20 to 28 with a constantly changing schedule to accommodate fog, snow, rain, icy snow, soft snow – the full gamut of weather conditions that Whistler goes through in a year.

With some incredibly hard work by Whistler-Blackcomb and the Weasel Workers, organizers did manage to hold most events as planned and crown national champions in four disciplines.

Technical skier rules speed events

Britt Janyk is a member of the national technical team, and mostly competes in giant slalom and slalom events on the World Cup circuit. Now and then, when there’s an opening in a Europa Cup competition, she’ll pop on her downhill skis and let it all hang out – and always does surprisingly well.

After just one downhill training run, which she won, Janyk blew the competition away on a shortened Dave Murray Downhill course on March 23.

She was joined on the podium by Calgary’s Shona Rubens in second and Danielle Poschuk of Fernie.

Other Whistler skiers included Danielle Robson in 13 th , Leighton in 14 th , Jillian McArthur in 21 st and Julia Murray in 23 rd .

It was Janyk’s seventh national title, and first title in a downhill event. But while the downhill win was unusual for her, it wasn’t her only gold in a speed event.

Three days later she was back on top of the podium with another dominating performance in the super G. Leighton from the B.C. Ski Team, a Whistler Mountain Ski Club alumnus, finished second, while Marie-Michelle Belanger-Timothy of the Quebec team claimed the bronze medal.

Other Whistler skiers were Julia Murray 25 th , Jillian McArthur 26 th , Shannon Smith 33 rd and Elizabeth Parry 35 th .

Despite her success in the speed events, Janyk says she’s not planning on ditching the technical skis just yet.

"I wanted to do well in the technical events, so it was a nice surprise to do well in the speed events, a nice bonus," said Janyk. "As for racing more speed events, we shall see. What I took away from that was going all out in touch conditions and tough courses, and still doing well. It gives me a lot of confidence for next year.

"I definitely think giant slalom and slalom is where I want to do it on the World Cup, I don’t really see myself as a downhiller. But maybe I could race more combined events, and even the odd super G."

Janyk had a frustrating year on the World Cup circuit where she was focusing on the slalom, which is probably one of the hardest disciplines to break into with such a strong core of European skiers to contend with. However, Janyk is patient and knows the results will come if she can ski as well in competitions as she does in training.

Janyk tipped her hat to the Weasel Workers for working almost around the clock to get courses in shape for races, despite the challenging conditions.

"They really did an amazing job with the weather conditions they had to deal with. We had snow and cold in the beginning, and the last couple of days we had warm weather and soft snow. It was really impressive what they were able to do," she said.

For Leighton, the silver medal in super G was the highlight of her week.

"It was a goal of mine to podium, but I didn’t realize that it was actually happening until it happened," she said.

"I’m pretty confident racing at home, and I gained a lot of confidence through the season, but it means a lot to me to put it together for a competition like this when the conditions were difficult. I think some of the top girls held back.

"I usually have a problem with flat light, but I’ve been working on that. This was a big race and I couldn’t let that get me."

Leighton, the granddaughter of original Weasel Worker Bob Parsons, does not know whether to expect an invite to the national or development team next season. Alpine Canada won’t decide that until later this spring. Whatever happens she says her result has given her a lot of confidence and motivation for next season.

Despite the fact that she’s been skiing since she was four years old, and is turning 19 in May, Leighton says she’s still enjoying skiing as much as ever – part of the reason she believes she did so well in the nationals.

"A big part of it is just having fun," she said. "I’m doing what I love to do, I enjoy racing and training, and I’ve found that when I’m having the most fun that’s when everything comes together."

In the men’s downhill on March 21, Jeffrey Frisch of the development team claimed the national title.

"I was a bit disappointed that the men’s start was lowered due to the conditions because I love the top section of this course," he said. Frisch grew up ski racing in Italy, and moved to Canada more than four years ago where there is less competition to make the national team. So far he’s off to a good start with a national title and several strong Nor Am results to his credit.

Calgary’s John Kucera, 21, was second, the start of his own great week. Third went to Jan Hudec of Banff, who has been on the comeback trail all season after taking most of the previous year off with a knee injury.

Several Whistler racers also took part. WMSC alumnus Manuel Osborne-Paradis was fifth, Robbie Dixon sixth, Benjamin Chaddock 10 th , Brian Bennett 11 th , Trevor Conroy 27 th , Simon Mannella 28 th , Conrad Pridy 45 th , Stan Rey 49 th , Matt Holler 50 th and Darren Chaddock 54 th .

It was a few days before the men could race super G after the event was started Saturday, March 25 and then cancelled because of deteriorating conditions on a crucial corner of the course. When it finally got underway on Monday, John Kucera made the most of the course to take his second gold medal of the nationals (winning giant slalom the day before).

"My run felt ragged and bumpy but I knew I was carrying a lot of speed," said Kucera, who was the defending super G champion. "The course runs well and will be a great World Cup track."

Frisch took second place by less than a second, while Jonathan Robert of the Quebec Team claimed bronze.

For Whistler, Robbie Dixon was ninth, Manuel Osborne-Paradis 11 th , Mike Janyk 12 th , Jeff Hume 14 th , Benjamin Chaddock 15 th , Scott Hume 18 th , Matt Holler 40 th , Tevor Conroy 47 th , Benjamin Podborski 53 rd , Stan Rey 58 th and James McLean 63 rd .

Kucera, Janyk win technical events

With the weather calming down organizers managed to run the technical events between Sunday and Tuesday.

Christina Lustenberger of Invermere and the national development team claimed the women’s giant slalom title on Monday. She edged out four national team members – Brigitte Acton, Shona Rubens, Britt Janyk and Emily Brydon, who finished second through fifth respectively – to take the gold medal.

"I’m so excited," said Lustenberger. "It feels incredible to finish a full season without an injury and to have shown that I can ski strong on home turf."

Lustenberger tore her ACL twice in the previous two seasons, and has only been competing in GS this year to get back into form. She hopes to race downhill and super G next year.

From Whistler, the list of finishers included Anastasia Skryabina in 25 th , Julia Murray in 25 th and Shannon Smith in 38 th .

John Kucera easily won the men’s GS on Sunday, posting the fastest first and second runs to finish almost two and a half seconds ahead of Whistler’s Michael Janyk. Thomas Grandi, the most consistent Canadian on the World Cup circuit, was third.

Kucera was ecstatic with his race. "After the first run I knew I had the lead but I still had to go after it in the second run to win," he said. "This result is amongst the best for me this seasons and I feel awesome."

Janyk enjoyed his second place finish, but gave credit where it was due.

"This is unbelievable. He killed it," he said of Kucera. "This is an amazing result for me but it’s kind of bittersweet because I am so far back from John’s time. You have to applaud John because he put on quite a show."

From Whistler Benjamin Chaddock was 14 th , Jeff Hume 16 th , Stan Rey 35 th , James McLean 38 th , Benjamin Podborski 46 th and Michael Kearney 49 th .

The last event of the championships was the slalom on Tuesday. Brigitte Acton took the win, her best result in the nationals, while Fernie’s Emily Brydon was second and Megan Ryley of the Ontario team took bronze. Alison Leighton was 14 th , Danielle Robson 21 st , Jillian McArthur 24 th , Julia Murray 28 th and Elizabeth Parry 29 th . Britt Janyk did not finish her first run.

For the men, Whistler’s Michael Janyk earned his second career national slalom title as well as his second medal of the championships with two solid runs. It wasn’t easy.

"There were five of us in this, J.P. (Roy), Thomas (Grandi), (Patrick) Biggs, Paul Stutz, who were in contention after the first run. We all train together, and push each other, so we knew it would be intense," he said.

"We also knew that the conditions would be a lot worse for the second run as the course got a little more rutted, so I had to go all out and not worry about that. Just hope for the best.

"This year was about the World Cup and the Olympics when it is all said and done, but winning another national title at home was still a big goal for me.

"I’ve been skiing well, and I can feel myself getting more consistent for next year.

"It’s a World Championship year, but to be honest the World Cup circuit is big enough as it is. We’re looking for podiums and the World Cup, working our way up the rankings. Hopefully we’ll be doing well enough and skiing confidently enough at the World Cup level that we’ll be ready for the big events."

Patrick Biggs was second and Paul Stutz third.

From Whistler, Scott Hume was seventh, Jeff Hume 20 th , Stan Rey 34 th , James McLean 35 th and Micheal Kearney 40 th .

With the championships wrapped up, Alison Leighton also claimed the overall Pontiac Cup title, which was worth $5,000. Whistler’s Jeff Hume tied for second place in the men’s standings, splitting a prize purse of $2,500 with Patrick Wright of Oakville, Ontario.

Complete results are online at www.canski.org.