After a short break for Christmas, Nanaimo’s Allison Forsyth and Whistler’s Britt Janyk were back at it, slashing their way through the gates at the recent World Cup at Semmerling, Austria.
Forsyth started strong on Dec. 28 with a 15 th place finish in the slalom and rounded the weekend off on Dec. 30 with another 15 th in the giant slalom. It wasn’t her cleanest performance of the season, nearly crashing on her second run and losing her pole.
"I’ve been a little unlucky in GS so far," said the 22 year old, a product of the Mount Washington Ski Club. She was in ninth place after her first run, and looking for a medal.
"Today I was ready for a good race and after my first run I had the feeling that today I was going to challenge. When I went out of the start on the second run I felt really good, but I went a little bit high on one turn and then hooked my arm."
The crowd of 20,000 cheered her on as she kept racing the course with just one pole.
"It was amazing coming down the last pitch, hearing all those people cheering for me from the bottom. I guess they thought it was pretty cool that I kept going."
After Semmerling, Forsyth moved up to 18 th place in the overall GS standings and to 27 th overall in World Cup points.
Janyk, 22, also continued to build on her success with a blistering second run that put her in 18 th place. She entered the World Cup spotlight at the previous World Cup GS in Sestriere, Italy, by winning the second run.
Janica Kostelic continued her winning streak in the slalom with yet another first place finish at Semmerling. She crossed the line almost seven-tenths of a second ahead of Sonja Nef of Switzerland, and more than a second ahead of third place finisher Trine Bakke of Norway.
In the GS, Nef had her revenge, beating her teammate Corrine Rey Bellet by more than half a second. Sarah Schleper of the U.S. continued her rise to the top by claiming the bronze medal.
Heading into the second half of the season, Emily Brydon of Fernie is the top Canadian, ranked 22 nd overall. Melanie Turgeon, the 24 year old from Beauport, Quebec is currently 23 rd . Janyk is 60 th and Anne Marie LeFrancois is 70 th .
