ALPINE:

Guay rules Kvitfjell super-G for 2nd career victory

March 7, 2010 — The Canadian Press         

►Photos: Erik Guay on the podium and in action at Kvitfjell, and facing the Olympic spotlight, bottom (Agence Zoom)

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KVITFJELL, Norway — Erik Guay of Canada ended three years of near misses and captured his second career World Cup victory Sunday with a narrow win in a super-G race.

Guay edged early leader Hannes Reichelt of Austria on the 1994 Olympic course in Kvitfjell, Norway, to win his first race since a downhill in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, three years ago.

"It's been a long time since I've been on top of the podium," Guay said. “I took a lot of risks and it paid off ... I've had a lot of close calls, fourths and fifths, and I am going to push hard in the last races next week and see what happens."

Guay's home Olympics in Vancouver also produced two fifth-place finishes despite bigger expectations.

This time, the close call went Guay's way and he edged Reichelt by .02 seconds.

Olympic champion Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway and Tobias Gruenenfelder of Switzerland tied for third place. Svindal was second in Saturday's downhill.

Canada's Manny Osborne-Paradis was 11th, Jan Hudec 17th and Ben Thomsen 45th.

Didier Cuche of Switzerland, who won Saturday's downhill, was disqualified. His Swiss teammate and Olympic downhill champion, Didier Defago, lost a ski halfway down the course and crashed.

Reichelt was first out of the starting gate and his time topped the board until Guay came down as No. 18.

Guay clocked 1 minute, 31.95 seconds over the 2,574-metre long Olympiabakken course to snatch victory ahead of Reichelt. Svindal and Gruenenfelder clocked 1:32.26.

"Obviously I would have loved to achieve this result at the Olympics but sometimes you're on the right side and sometimes on the wrong side of luck," said Guay, who also failed to make the downhill podium at the 2006 Olympics in Torino by 0.01 seconds.

"For us Canadians there was two much press, too many expectations in Whistler," he told reporters.

Guay registered his previous World Cup victory in a downhill in Garmisch-Partenkirchen three years ago.

"In Kvitfjell you need to find the right balance between attack and smoothness. I worked very hard to achieve this," he said.

"This win feels really good. Like in 2007, my win is at the end of the season, but I still have two races left. It's pretty exciting because I never won a super-G race before today," added Guay. "It's very soothing but I have to refocus on my game plan because we start training again in Garmisch this Tuesday."

With Sunday’s result, Guay also becomes the second Canadian this week to secure use of a GMC vehicle for the coming year.

The GMC promotion, now in its eighth year, provides a vehicle to any Canadian athlete who wins a World Cup race, podiums in any Olympic or World Championships competition or finishes in the top 10 in the standings in any World Cup discipline.

Emily Brydon will end the season 10th in the super-combined standings. Osborne-Paradis also accomplished the feat with his win earlier this season in Lake Louise.

Mario Scheiber of Austria was fifth, only .01 seconds behind Svindal and Gruenenfelder.

Reichelt posted his best result in two years, a measure of redemption after failing to make Austria's Olympic squad.

Swede Patrik Jaerbyn, 41, finished eighth only two weeks after being involved in a serious crash at the Olympics.

The World Cup season ends next week in Garmisch with final races in four events.

Michael Walchhofer of Austria placed sixth and kept his lead in super-G World Cup standings with one race left. He now has 300 points, with Svindal second at 254 and Guay third at 231. A win is worth 100 points.

"Svindal is so strong right now, he can win every race, and I am not going to play any tactical games in Garmisch but go for it," Walchhofer said.

Two Americans who took silver and bronze behind Svindal at the super-G at the Vancouver Olympics did not start. Silver medallist Bode Miller skipped the two races in Norway while bronze medallist Andrew Weibrecht dislocated his shoulder in a crash in Saturday's downhill and will miss the remainder of the season.

In the overall standings, leader Benjamin Raich ceded more ground to Carlo Janka of Switzerland. Raich finished 19th and now has a total of 1,019 points, while Janka was seventh and is now only 46 behind.

"I'll have to take risks if I want to get ahead," Janka said.

Cuche is third with 846 points and Svindal is fourth at 801.  SRC

— Reuters Canada and Alpine Canada contributed to this report

Kvitfjell men’s World Cup super-G results