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Kucera continues to lead Canadian team

Janyk second in Europa Cup, Victoria Whitney on top in Nor-Am

Calgary skier John Kucera continued to lead the way for the men’s World Cup team as the tour crossed the Atlantic for events at Val d’Isere, France last weekend.

The Canadian skiers had a rough day in Saturday’s giant slalom, where Jean-Philipe Roy was the top Canadian in 25 th place. None of the other Canadians — Thomas Grandi, Robbie Dixon, Michael Janyk, John Kucera or Julien Cousineau — qualified for a second run.

Gold, silver and bronze went to Carlo Janka of Switzerland, Massimiliano Blardone of Italy and Gauthier De Tessieres of France respectively.

Things were a little more interesting in Friday’s super combined race, a format that includes super G and slalom disciplines. Kucera finished second in the super G race to Carlo Janka, moving up to 11 th overall in the combined event. Janka won the super G race and placed eighth overall in the super combined. Ted Ligety of the U.S. was third in the super G, but didn’t place in the overall standings.

“As it stands it was a pretty solid day,” said Kucera. “It’s not a very feel-good course. It’s one of those courses you have got to just really fight and battle all the way down and today turned out pretty good.”

Cousineau also redeemed himself, moving up to 18 th with solid runs in both events.

The win in the combined event went to Austrian Benjamin Raich, followed by Jean-Baptiste Grange of France, and Marcel Hirscher of Austria.

Men’s team head coach said the event was really a training opportunity for the World Championships, which will use the same runs.

“It’s a good opportunity to get on the race track, especially for speed (events),” he said. “Not many hills have a similar characteristic to this one, just because it is so steep and in your face the whole way down. There are not gliding sections really.”

The men’s team is back in action this week at Val Gardena-Groeden in Italy for downhill and super G races.

Meanwhile the women’s speed team headed to St. Moritz, Switzerland to squeeze in a few Europa Cup races before their next World Cup stop. The downhill event eventually was cancelled because of heavy snow, but organizers managed to run a super G and super combined race.

Whistler’s Britt Janyk placed second in the super G, coming within one one-hundredth of a second of first place. Wendy Siopaes of Italy was first and Dominique Gisin of Switzerland third.

While Janyk has not won a Europa Cup super G since 2002, she was more excited by the chance to go powder skiing than her near-gold experience.

“We went powder skiing on our second afternoon here, it’s been snowing and snowing,” she said. “I rented some fat skis but never got the hang of them. They were like water skis that didn’t turn.

“There were a bunch of the girls (from the World Cup) at the Europa Cup, so it was definitely nice to do well. It was also good to get a chance to race before (this weekend’s) World Cup races.”

Also for Canada, Emilie Desforges tied for eighth place. The women will be in super combined, downhill and super G races at St. Moritz this week.

The women’s technical team also squeezed in giant slalom and slalom World Cup races at La Molina, Spain this week. None of the Canadians qualified for a second run in GS, but Anna Goodman improved on her ranking with a 21 st place finish in slalom.

 

Victoria Whitney takes Nor-Am gold

Whistler’s Victoria Whitney, skiing for the B.C. Team, made a solid comeback to racing after missing most of last season to get surgery and rehabilitate a knee injury. Not one to ski cautiously, she attacked the Nor-Am super G course at Panorama on Monday to take the gold medal by 0.18 seconds.

Teammates Kelly McBroom and Georgia Simmerling were second and third for Canada, with American skiers snapping up the next seven spots in the top-10.

“I’m super-excited with this results, but the day started out pretty hectic for me when I realized that I had arrived at the hill with my wrong skis,” she said. “I had to go back and get my race skis, so I missed part of my inspection. Of course I don’t recommend this, but I didn’t get flustered. I stayed calm and trusted the course reports my coaches were sending me.”

Whitney said the course was laid out almost like a giant slalom cours,e and luckily she also warmed up on a GS course wearing her super G skis. “I think that actually helped me today,” she said.

Several Whistler Mountain Ski Club (WMSC) skiers were also in the mix. Antastasiya Skryabina was 26 th , Alecia Willis 28 th , and Calindy Ramsden 49 th .

On the men’s side, Stefan Guay, Louis-Pierre Helie and Jeffrey Frisch of Canada won the last men’s super G. Whistler’s Conrad Pridy was 12 th racing for the B.C.   team, Morgan Pridy was 39 th , Stan Rey 51 st , Ben Maclean 57 th , Ian Morrison 58 th , Philip Matejko 62 nd , Alexander Binks 68 th , and Simon Timoshenko 81 st .

Canada’s top racer in the super combined was Ashley-Kate Durham in fifth place, followed by Madison Irwin in ninth. From the Whistler Mountain Ski Club, Calindy Ramsden was 28 th , Alecia Willis 29 th , and Victoria Whitney 37 th .

Whitney, better known for speed events after placing seventh in the nationals downhill championship in early 2007, was fourth in the second super G, while Kelly McBroom was second for Canada. Willis was 34 th , Anastasiya Skryabina 36 th , and Calindy Ramsden 40 th .

In the men’s super combined, Ryan Semple was first overall, followed by Louis-Pierre Helie and American skier Will Gregorak.

Conrad Pridy was 15 th , Morgan Pridy 22 nd , Michael Cadman 29 th and Simon Timoshenko 34 th .