Canadian Roni Remme made an impression at her first FIS World Ski Championships at Åre, Sweden on Feb. 8.
The 22-year-old Ontarian earned a fifth-place finish in the Alpine combined race, finishing 1.13 seconds back of champion Wendy Holdener of Switzerland. Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova was second, just 0.03 seconds back, while Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel took third.
Remme sat near the back of the pack in 28th position after the downhill run, but posted the best slalom time to rocket up into the top 5.
“I was not super thrilled with my downhill run this morning, so for sure, coming into the slalom, I wanted to change gears and really try to attack it as best as I could,” Remme said in a release. “Coming out of the start, the snow was money and I knew that I needed to go a little bit more, so about halfway down, I really tried to change gears and give it everything I had from the bottom-half down. I’m really happy with the way I skied that part.”
Teammate Marie-Michele Gagnon, who was sixth in Alpine combined at the 2017 World Championships, finished 14th.
Whistler’s Corless podiums at Junior World Cup
Whistler’s Natalie Corless continued a stellar season at Winterberg, Germany on Feb. 8.
The 15-year-old posted a third-place finish in the Youth ‘A’ women’s event, finishing 0.604 seconds behind winner Sophie Gerloff of Germany.
Melina Cielaszyk, also of Germany, was in the runner-up position. It was an excellent day for all of Canada’s entries in the event, as Whistler’s Caitlin Nash took fourth, Calgary’s Ava Luscombe and Kailey Allan were fifth and sixth, respectively, and Whistler’s Midori Holland took eighth in the 45-sled field.
Nash and Corless also slid to an eighth-place finish in the doubles event, 0.861 seconds behind champions Jessica Degenhardt and Vanessa Schneider of Germany. Austria’s Selina Egle and Lara Kipp took second while Germany’s Luisa Romanenko and Pauline Patz were third.
In the men’s race, Devin Wardrope was the top Canadian in 16th, 1.424 seconds off the pace set by winner Gints Berzins of Latvia, who edged Germany’s Pascal Kunze and Russia’s Pavel Repilov. Whistler’s Garrett Reid was 20th, Dylan Morse took 24th and Thomas Fassnidge ended up in 31st.
