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Corless 12th at World Juniors

Sports briefs: Grenier hits top 20 at Worlds
web-corless-feb-6
Natalie Corless, shown here after a win earlier this season, took 12th at the FIL World Junior Championships. Photo submitted

The world's top junior lugers got the opportunity to race alongside the best at Altenberg, Germany on the weekend with the FIL Junior World Championships taking place alongside Viessmann World Cup action.

Whistler's Natalie Corless had the best result among individual sliders, posting a 12th-place finish in the women's event, 0.851 seconds back of champion Cheyenne Rosenthal of Germany. Italy's Verena Hofer and Germany's Jessica Degenhardt rounded out the podium in second and third, respectively. Fellow Whistlerite Caitlin Nash placed 24th.

On the men's side, Devin Wardrope placed 16th, 2.683 seconds off the pace set by winner Max Langenhan of Germany. Austria's Bastian Schulte and Italy's Lukas Gufler took silver and bronze, respectively. Whistler's Garrett Reid, meanwhile, placed 21st.

The doubles event was a co-ed affair, with Corless and Nash combining to place second among women and 14th overall, 2.232 seconds back of winners Hannes Orlamuender and Paul Gubitz of Germany. Russia took second and third, with Dmitriy Buchnev and Danill Kilseev earning silver and Andrey Shander and Semen Mikov claiming bronze. The second Canadian sled of Wardrope and Thomas Fassnridge placed 21st.

Lastly, Canada took a top-10 finish in the team event, with Samantha Judson, Colton Clarke and the Corless-Nash doubles sled posting an eighth-place showing. Austria topped Germany and Russia for gold.

In the World Cup event, Pemberton's Trinity Ellis was the top Canadian singles sliders in her debut, posting a 16th-place finish, 0.715 seconds behind winner Sandra Robatscher of Italy. Germany's Natalie Geisenberger and Russia's Viktoriia Demchenko rounded out the podium.

On the men's side, Whistler's Reid Watts took 17th, 1.337 seconds off German Felix Loch's winning pace. Austria's Reinhard Egger and Germany's Johannes Ludwig placed second and third, in order.

Finally, in the doubles event, Canadians Tristan Walker and Justin Snith slid to an 11th-place finish, 0.808 seconds behind champions Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller. Germany's Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken took second while Latvia's Andris Sics and Juris Sics were third.

Grenier hits top 20 at worlds

Canada's two entrants in the FIS World Ski Championships women's super-G finished close together.

Valerie Grenier and Marie-Michele Gagnon were 19th and 21st, respectively, at the race at Are, Sweden on Feb. 5. Grenier was 1.78 seconds back of winner Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States. Italy's Sofia Goggia and Switzerland's Corinne Suter were hot on Shiffrin's heels and placed second and third.

Gagnon had narrowly missed a top-10 finish in women's giant slalom action at Maribor, Slovenia on Feb. 1.

Gagnon was just 0.18 seconds out of 10th and 2.86 seconds back of co-champions Petra Vlhova of Slovakia and Shiffrin. Norway's Ragnhilde Mowinckle ended up third.

In the Feb. 2 slalom, Canadians Laurence St-Germain and Roni Remme took 17th and 20th, respectively. Shiffrin took the win without sharing, topping Sweden's Anna Swenn Larsson and Switzerland's Wendy Holdener.

WMSC racers take top 10s at Kimberley

Whistler Mountain Ski Club racers posted strong results at the BC Cup Speed Series at Kimberley on the weekend.

Gigi Kranjc put up a fifth-place finish in the women's downhill on Feb. 1 and an eighth-place showing in the Feb. 3 downhill, while Maja Woolley was also fifth in the women's slalom on Feb. 2. As for the men, Konstantin Petkovic was fourth in the slalom.

Full results are available online at www.fis-ski.com.

Fairmont Chateau Whistler GC honoured

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler Golf Club made an exclusive list this year.

The local course was one of two B.C. sites to crack online golf reservation service golfscape's list of the World's Top 100 Courses, ranking 64th.

Wrote the site: "Carved out of the slopes of the Coast Mountain range in British Columbia, this magnificent Whistler golf course allows nature to dictate the path without constraints of commercial influence. The mountain course traverses creeks, ponds, stands of ancient Douglas fir, and granite rock. Elevation changes of more than 400 feet overall create an impressive golf opportunity and a naturally spectacular BC golf experience."