ALPINE:

Canada’s Brown reels in bronze in world juniors combined

Feb. 3, 2011 — Alpine Canada

CRANS MONTANA, Switzerland — Prospect Group athlete Philip Brown earned Canada's first podium at the FIS World Junior Championships this year by finishing third in the combined event.

Before the downhill event, Brown was ranked fourth, but his 14th-place finish, in a time of 1 minute, 39.25 seconds, helped him climb his way to third.

Brown, of Toronto, Ont., has been skiing well in Crans Montana, finishing 11th in the giant slalom and 10th in the slalom event. He finished with a total of 67.15 points.

"I knew getting into this race that I had pretty a good chance of being on the podium," said Brown, who officially heard about placing third a couple of minutes before the flower ceremony for the men's downhill race. "I was fourth before the downhill and I had a great training run yesterday so the confidence was there.

"My downhill race today was not as good as I was expecting," said the 20-year-old. "It felt faster but the times are not really faster than yesterday. It was super-bumpy and at times during my run I wasn't really at the spots I should have been. I'm really pumped with this result and this might be my ticket to the national team."

The combined event regroups the slalom, giant slalom and downhill races and the top three are determined by race points accumulated over the course of all three events.

This is the second consecutive year that a Canadian has finished third in combined event, after Toronto's Kelby Halbert was third last year.

Elsewhere, Erik Read was fifth in the combined event with 79.49 points. This tops Read's previous best result at a World Junior Championship, the sixth-place finish he earned in the slalom event earlier this week. Read finished 31st in the downhill with a time of 1:39.88.

Calgary's Trevor Philp was the second Canadian to score a spot in the men's downhill top 30 when he finished 16th with a time of 1:39.35. Fernie's Tyler Werry was 17th with a time of 1:39.38 and Canmore's Andy Trow was 27th with a time of 1:39.82, making him the fourth Canadian team member to finish in the top 30.

"We had a pretty good day today," said men's head coach Kip Harrington. "We had an incredible day in yesterday's training run. The results we got with Erik and Philip were above our expectations, especially with the amount of downhill training we did this season.

"I think three athletes in the top 20 is a pretty decent performance for our guys and I'm happy for everyone, not to mention two guys in the top five for the combined event."

The women’s team also enjoyed a good day, with Brittany Phelan from Mont-Tremblant, Que., finishing fifth after crossing the finish line with a two-run combined time of 1:42.13. Phelan was in position to take the podium after finishing first in the first run, but because the slalom started late in the afternoon, the snow conditions had deteriorated by the time she started her second run.

"It sucks," said a visibly emotional Phelan. "I can't be too disappointed though because to finish fifth with how my race ended in the second run is pretty good. I'm racing slalom again, and I'll just get it done tomorrow."

Madison Irwin of Toronto, Ont., was the only other athlete who made it to the second run, but she wasn't able to complete her race.  

Julia Roth of Waterloo, Ont., straddled the second gate in the first run. Madison McLeish from Canmore, Alta., was not able to finish her first run.

The men will take part in their final FIS World Junior Championship event Friday, the super-G.  S-Magazine