ALPINE:

Calgary's Read 6th in slalom at world juniors

Jan. 31, 2011 

CRANS MONTANA — The men's team representing Canada at the FIS World Junior Championships wowed the crowd in Monday's slalom as five racers finished in the top 30, the most for any nation and one of the best results a Canadian team has ever had at this level.

The fastest Canadian Monday was Prospect Group athlete Erik Read from Calgary, Alta., who finished sixth with a two-run combined time of 1 minute, 31.54 seconds. Even with a mistake halfway through his first run, he managed to finish 16th place. Read shifted up a gear in his second run and went up 10 spots in the rankings.

A sixth-place finish represents Read's best result at the FIS Junior World Ski Championships. His previous best was ninth in the super-combined event at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, in 2009.

"My first run was all right, but the conditions were pretty soft again," said Read. "At about halfway down I caught an edge and slid a little but I stayed up and kept going and I skied the bottom really well. Despite that I was still really happy with my first run.

"The second run was a lot better and the conditions this afternoon were beautiful. I had to deal with the ruts and the snow conditions but fought through it and I skied really well. I'm really happy with my result today and I'm happy for the whole Canadian team. This is great day for us and hopefully we can keep building on that in the next couple of days."

Switzerland also had reason to celebrate as Reto Schmidiger finished first with a time of 1:28.54 and Justin Murisier second in 1:30.08. The podium was rounded out by France's Mathias Rolland, who had a time of 1:30.54.

The second Canadian to finish in the top 10 was Toronto's Philip Brown, also in the Prospect Group, who finished 10th with a two-run combined time of 1:31.92.

Brown, who finished 30th after the first run, was the first one out of the gate and clocked the fastest second run out of 87 racers. It's his second top-15 finish in two days, after he was 11th in Sunday's giant slalom race.

Trevor Philp, 19, from Calgary, Alta., who is part of the Canadian prospect team, was just behind Brown in 11th place with a two-run combined time of 1:32.01. It was a career-best finish for Philp at the World Junior Championships.

Mont-Tremblant, Que., athlete Dominic Garand, who is taking part in his first World Junior Championships, was the fourth Canadian athlete to finish in the top 30 as he clocked the 23rd-fastest run with a time of 1:33.71. Cody Pederson from Calgary, Alta., finished 27th in 1:35.49.

Andy Trow from Canmore, Alta., was one of the many athletes who was not able to finish the first run. Only 87 athletes of 163 at the start gate made it to the second round.

The women had their second downhill training run, which went smoother than Sunday without any major crashes.

Canada's fastest girl was Sarah Freeman from Fernie, B.C., as she clocked a time of 1:35.41, which put her in ninth place.

Prospect athlete Julia Roth, from Waterloo, Ont., finished 16th with a time of 1:35.82. The last Canadian out of the gate was Madison McLeish, who finished 34th place with a time of 1:37.69.

The women will be racing the downhill event Tuesday and the men will take part in their first downhill training run.Calgary's Erik Read contended for the podium Monday in the slalom at the FIS Junior World Ski Championships in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, settling for sixth place. S-Magazine

— Alpine Canada contributed to this report