Local Sports

Many of the best snowboarders in the universe will converge on Blackcomb next weekend to compete for prize money, pride, and crucial FIS points, redeemable for a chance at Olympic glory at Salt Lake City in 2002.

Rocket Rally Racing finished its first full rally car season in first place with a convincing win at the Rally of the Tall Pines in Bancroft, Ontario, last weekend in the last event of Canadian season.

After finishing a disappointing 15 th in Saturday’s downhill, Austria’s Hermann "The Hermanator" Maier re-established his dominance on the World Cup circuit with a convincing win in Sunday’s super G.

After two days of running around the woods around Logan Lake outside of Kamloops, Whistler’s Marie-Catherin Bruno finally emerged to become the new B.C. orienteering champion.

It may be another couple of months before the W5 Foundation and Alpine Canada decide how they will approach the spring FIS meeting, when next year’s World Cup calendar will be finalized, but Whistler wants a World Cup race.

Heavy equipment was moved onto Whistler Mountain early this week after the W5 group and the Hong Kong Bank of Canada reached an understanding on funding which will bring World Cup men’s downhill racing to Whistler each December for at least the next

The Whistler Resort Association agreed Tuesday to guarantee the last $500,000 of the $3 million loan needed for snowmaking, which should clear the way for Whistler to become a permanent stop on the World Cup tour.

No one from Whistler Mountain was available to comment this week but other members of the W5 Group say the lift company has agreed to guarantee $1 million of the $3 million loan needed for snowmaking for the December World Cup race.

The story line is a bit like a James Bond movie.

The deal isn’t quite signed, sealed and delivered but agreements have been reconfirmed and the financing is in place to bring the World Cup downhill to Whistler in December.