ALPINE:

'Game plan' works as Guay rips to 3rd in Finals downhill

March 10, 2010 — SRC Staff Report          ►Photo: Erik Guay, above; Didier Cuche with his downhill globe (Agence Zoom)

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GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany — Carlo Janka of Switzerland won the final downhill of the season Wednesday to take the overall World Cup lead with three races remaining.

The Olympic giant slalom champion edged Mario Scheiber of Austria, meaning that the once powerful Austrian team failed to win a downhill race all season for the first time since 1991-92.

Patrick Kueng of Switzerland and Erik Guay of Canada shared third place.

Guay said he wanted to take some chances on the Kandahar course since it paid off when he did that last weekend.

"That was the game plan — take more risks and try to get out of my comfort zone and I think I did that," Guay said on a conference call. "Actually, I'm sure that I did that. I definitely accomplished what I wanted to do."

Guay has made 12 World Cup podium appearances over his career, with eight of those coming in the downhill.

He said he was satisfied with his effort Wednesday despite a few minor mistakes.

"Little things like that happen," he said. "But they always happen when you're taking chances. If you ski safe and round, then it's pretty easy to have a good clean run with no mistakes and then you're scratching your head wondering why you're not up there.

Guay's podium was the seventh for the Canadian team this season. He is scheduled to compete in the super-G on Thursday.

His strong performances come on the heels of a bittersweet Olympics, in which he posted a pair of fifth-place finishes. In the super-G, he was a mere 0.03 away from bronze.

"I was satisfied with my Olympic results as well," Guay said. "Since then I've maybe been lucky enough to be on the right side of the hundredths. I feel like I'm leaving less on the hill.

"I'm taking more chances and I'm satisfied with my skiing when I get to the bottom and that's kind of my ultimate goal."

Janka's third downhill victory of the season gave him a 54-point leader over Benjamin Raich of Austria in the race for the overall title. Raich did not compete in the downhill and will look for his chances in the giant slalom and slalom. A victory is worth 100 points.

Janka covered the 3,300-meter Kandahar course in 1 minute, 58.45 seconds. Scheiber was .02 seconds behind and Kueng and Guay, who won a super-G race in Kvitfjell, Norway, on Sunday, were both .07 behind.

"In the first half of the race it was not perfect surely, but I made no mistakes at the bottom half," Janka said after his seventh career victory.

One of the late starters at No. 20, Janka said he benefited from better conditions.

"I had better visibility," he said.

Didier Cuche of Switzerland already had secured the downhill title and finished eighth Wednesday skiing with a sore back.

"I almost didn't make it to the start," said Cuche, who needed a painkilling shot.

Janka said the overall title would be a fine end to an already good season.

"I knew that this was the event where I needed to win some points. The race was very tight and I was the lucky one, I was on the right side of the clock," he said.

"It's still in the cards, the course suits me and I think I can be fast tomorrow as well (in the super-G)," Janka said.

"These are the races I needed to do well in because I will be behind Raich in the technical events.” Giant slalom and slalom events conclude the season.

"It will be good to have a good margin on my side going into the technical races," Janka said.

MannyOsborne-Paradis was seventh, just missing out on a podium spot for the season downhill standings. He finished fourth in the discipline standings with 281 downhill points, just 11 behind Italy’s Werner Heel for third. Janka was second in the downhill standings.

Guay finished the season ranked 13th in downhill. Guay picked up his second World Cup podium result in four days. He travelled from Norway to Germany on Sunday and had just one training run prior to Wednesday’s race.

"It was a pretty hectic schedule with not a lot of time to rest and recover. But it might have worked in my favour as well because I was fresh off that victory and feeling pretty good," said Guay. "Being able to come here and put another (podium) in the bag feels really good. It's been a long time since I have been on the podium in the downhill, so I couldn't be happier."

This is Guay's 12th career World Cup podium result, including eight in the downhill discipline. To put that into perspective, he's only two career podiums behind Canadian ski racing legend Ken Read, who sits second all-time among Canadian men.

"I feel like I am leaving less on the hill. I am satisfied with my skiing and that's kind of my ultimate goal," said Guay, who was seven-hundreths from the day’s best time.

"Only seven-hundreths behind is the blink of an eye. At the same time it could have gone the other way. If I look behind me, if I am 11-hundredths slower I think I am in ninth place," Guay said.

"I am for sure very happy to be on the podium. It feels good to be on the podium, not fourth and fifth," he added.

The GMC Alpine Ski Series can be seen on the main CBC network on Saturday with coverage of the women’s super-G beginning at 2 p.m. ET followed by the men's slalom at 3:30 p.m. ET. The men's slalom is then replayed early Sunday morning at 12:30 a.m. local time.

Friday’s women’s super-G will be carried live on www.cbcsports.ca and CBC cable channel bold.

Both men's super-G races are available to French-language viewers on www.radio-canada.ca as well as the men's slalom. Radio-Canada is scheduled to have two hours of coverage on its main network Saturday beginning at 3 p.m. ET.

Thursday’s women’s GS will be on Rogers Sportsnet at 7 p.m. in the Eastern, Ontario and Pacific viewing regions as well as 3:30 p.m. in the West. Rogers Sportsnet will also have coverage of Friday's men's GS and Saturday's women's slalom.  SRC

— Alpine Canada and The Canadian Press contributed to this report

Garmisch-Partenkirchen men’s World Cup downhill results