ALPINE:

Red-hot Guay soars to super-G crystal globe

March 11, 2010 — SRC Staff Report         

►Photos: Aksel Lund Svindal, above (Agence Zoom); Erik Guay (AZ); bottom, Marco Buechel, in the final race of his career (AZ)

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GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany — Erik Guay of Canada produced a daring run to win the final super-G race of the season Thursday and claim the World Cup title in that event.

Coming off a super-G win on Sunday in Kvitfjell, Norway, Guay went into the race in third place but his blistering run down the Kandahar course gave him the title.

"I didn't think it would happen today, I was so far behind," Guay said after winning his first World Cup title. "But I knew that if I won today I would have a chance so I took maximum risks and it paid off. It was wild."

Steve Podborski’s 1982 downhill title — shared with Switzerland's Peter Mueller — was the last Canadian discipline championship on the World Cup.

"This is a childhood dream for me," Guay, 28, said. "To be honest, I was just hoping to win, I wasn't thinking about how long it had been since Canada won a trophy."

Ivica Kostelic of Croatia finished second in the race, ahead of Olympic champion Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, who was also third in the final discipline standings. Svindal was defending the title.

Michael Walchhofer of Austria, who led super-G standings going into the race, needed just a top-eight finish to wrap up the globe, but he finished 15th and ended up second. "I don't know what happened," Walchhofer told Reuters. "I felt pretty good at the start; I made a couple of mistakes but I cannot really analyze what happened.

"It wasn't quite just enough for the title. Obviously I'm really disappointed but now everything is behind me."

Walchhofer had a 46-point lead over Svindal and was 69 points ahead of Guay before the race.

By winning the last two of the six super-G races, Guay swept past his two rivals to claim the title with 331 points. Walchhofer had 316 points and Svindal finished with 314.

"The season could go on for another two-three weeks for me," Guay said.

Overall, Carlo Janka of Switzerland remained in the lead over Benjamin Raich of Austria. Raich, however, finished ahead of Janka in the race in sixth place and cut the gap to 38 points. Janka tied for 11th.

"I didn't have a great race," Raich said. "I struggled with the fresh snow, but I was able to cut the gap somewhat."

The overall title will be decided in the final two races, the giant slalom and the slalom.

"We can both do well," Raich said. "Carlo is very strong in the giant, I can also be fast and maybe I have an edge in the slalom. I am not making any predictions."

Guay covered 2,200-meter Kandahar course in 1 minute, 26.36 seconds to leave Kostelic behind. Kostelic had a surprisingly strong race, making the podium in the event for the first time this season with a time of 1:26.75. Svindal clocked 1:26.99.

"I had to go for it, I knew I had to win and that I had only a small chance of winning the trophy.

"I fought as hard as possible and made some mistakes but I kept pushing all the time."

Better than the Stanley Cup

In a conference call later Thursday, Guay was asked whether Olympic gold or World Cup Finals crystal meant more.

“It’s tough to win the crystal globe. It’s almost tough to put it into perspective,” Guay said. “You have to be on top throughout the whole year, whereas with Olympic gold you can almost get lucky or have a good day and walk away with the gold. An overall means you’ve really skied consistently throughout the whole year.

“For me, whether you ask for a gold medal or an overall title, it’s a tough question for sure. For me [the Olympics were] at home, it was in front of Canada and everybody was watching. I would have loved to win a gold medal in Canada. But on the other side, winning the overall championship in the super-G is something I’ve been dreaming about since I was a little kid.”

Sweeter than hoisting the Stanley Cup?

“The Stanley Cup would be sweet, but for me and my family, we dreamed about the overall globe,” Guay said. “I’ve always cheered for the Montreal Canadians, the Habs, but[the globe] is what my family and what I’ve been dreaming about since I was a little kid.”

Guay finished the season ranked first in super-G and 13th in downhill, and could finish as high as 13th in the overall. Scoring points in giant slalom would be key to his ability to someday challenge for the overall title.

“The overall globe might be a little bit of a far stretch,” Guay said. “For me in the past it’s been really about my back injury. If i can race GS, I would love to race. If I can, I’d love to continue to race in GS.”

The win marks Guay's 13th career World Cup podium, just one behind Canadian ski racing legend Ken Read, who sits second all-time among Canadian men. Podborski is No. 1. with 20 World Cup podiums.

“I think I’m fast approaching the legacy of Ken Read and [Steve] Podborski,” Guay said when asked about his career legacy. “Realistically if I look at the guys on our team right now, they are pretty young and have a strong chance at outperforming those guys, even though they really are a legacy in Canadian history and they’ve done extremely well. In the future, the Canadian ski team looks extremely strong.”

Guay was quick to thank his serviceman, Austrian-born Erich Schnepfleitner, along with his coaches and sponsors who contributed to his result, saying he shared an emotional moment with them in the finish area following the race.

Guay joins Podborski as the only Canadian male alpine ski racers to claim a discipline title.

"I think it's huge. No one has ever done it in super-G," said men's team head coach Paul Kristofic when asked about the significance of Guay's result. "It's a massive accomplishment (for Guay.) It shows consistency through the whole season and an incredible performance at the end of the season."

It's the fourth World Cup win of the season for the Canadian team, the most since Podborski (1), Laurie Graham (1) and Gerry Sorensen (2) combined for four wins in 1984. It's also the first time in the history of the Canadian men's alpine ski program that four World Cup races have been won in a season.

Buechel bows out

Marco Buechel of Liechtenstein celebrated his final career race by skiing down dressed in a jacket, tie and shorts.

"I can't believe it myself, I have to admit," he told AFP after his retirement run that wrapped up a 20-year World Cup career. "My heart's still in it, I've skied my whole life — 20 years in the World Cup. Now everything's going to change, but I think it's a very good decision to stop now. I think it's time."

Buechel, 38, won silver at the 1999 World Championships in 1999, and his final descent drew roars from the Garmisch-Partenkirchen crowd. "It's so nice (to hear the crowd cheer), I always wished it would end like this, that the people can celebrate with me," he said.

"It was rather chilly to race (in shorts), I must admit.

"Oh well, you just have to grit your teeth a bit." 

Both men's and women’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 run will be highlighted on Rogers Sportsnet along with women’s GS starting 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

— The Canadian Press, Reuters and Alpine Canada contributed to this report 

Garmisch-Partenkirchen men’s World Cup super-G results