ALPINE:

Brown, Read earn top-20 GS results at world juniors

Jan. 30, 2011

CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland — France's Alexis Pinturault won gold Sunday in the opening race of the FIS Junior World Alpine Ski Championship, a giant slalom in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.

Canada was led by Philip Brown in 11th, with Erik Read 16th.

Pinturault won the race convincingly with a time of 2 minutes, 19.62 seconds, more than half a second ahead of silver medallist Vincent Kriechmayr of Austria. France's Mathieu Faivre earned the bronze.

U.S. Development Ski Team member Ryan Siegle led the U.S. charge in 13th. 



Brown, from Toronto, Ont., skis for Alberta Ski Academy and is part of the prospect program. He finished with a combined time of 2:22.47 seconds, which left him in 11th place overall.

"The conditions were pretty tough today and because of the nerves I didn't really ski well my first run," said Brown, who was also 11th after his first run. "My ranking was pretty good considering how I felt about my run. My second run was definitely better. I felt way looser and the skiing was really good.

"Overall I think I did pretty well today and I'm satisfied with my result. The field is pretty tough and the top 15 guys are very strong, so to be able to compete against them is amazing."

Calgary's Read, a skier in the prospect program, was fresh out of his first World Cup experience in Schladming, Austria, last week. He finished in 16th place with a two-run combined time of 2:23.49.

"The snow was way softer than I had expected, so even after the first couple of guys the track was already deteriorating, but I'm pretty happy with what I accomplished," said Read, who is at his fourth world junior championships. "Tomorrow is the slalom event and that's my best event, so I'm looking forward to that."

The women took part in their first downhill training run and the top Canadian was Julia Roth, from Waterloo, Ont., who finished in 17th place with a time of 1:37.43.

"The terrain is pretty difficult," said Roth. "I think that's what I had the most difficulty with today. There are a lot of jumps and I'm not really good at those yet, so I need to work on that tomorrow. I hope I can get in the top 15 in downhill because that's my greatest event. I didn't really ski as good as I can so I'm going to work on that in tomorrow's training run."

Teammate Sarah Freeman from Fernie, B.C., was 20th with a time of 1:37.92. The last Canadian to come out of the gate was prospect athlete Madison McLeish, from Canmore, Alta., who finished in 45th place with a time of 1:42.49.

At night, the athletes took part in the opening ceremonies, where the 51 nations were presented in front of a crowd of 5,000 people at the centre of the town of Crans Montana.

The ceremonies were topped off with an appearance by special guest Didier Defago, who has been a notable ski figure in Switzerland for more than 10 years. He congratulated the athletes for qualifying for the championships and thanked their parents and coaches for their support.

The men will gear up for a slalom race Monday and the women will have their second and final downhill training run.

S-Magazine

— Alpine Canada and the U.S. Ski Team contributed to this report