ALPINE:

Cousineau, Gagnon reel in national slalom titles

March 31, 2011 — Alpine Canada    

♦ Photos: Top, Julien Cousineau (Michel Painchaud); Marie-Michele Gagnon (Painchaud); Paul Stutz (John Evely); Jan Hudec having some fun (Painchaud); Brad Spence (Evely)

NAKISKA, Alberta — Julien Cousineau won his first career Canadian Championships title in Thursday's difficult two-run slalom at the GMC Canadian Championships at Nakiska, Alta.

Cousineau, of Lachute, Que., crossed the finish line with a time of 1 minute, 33.75 seconds.

"My first run was really good," said the 29-year-old athlete, who was more than 0,50 seconds ahead of everyone after the first run.

"The second run was a little harder and the ruts were really big," added Cousineau. "My strategy in the second run was to keep my advance from the first run and win. It's my first Canadian title so I'm really happy about that."

Cousineau comes from a family of skiers. His dad, Alain Cousineau, was part of the national team in the seventies and won the slalom Canadian Championship title in 1974.

"My dad won a title when he was a racer and he always teased about having one and me not having one," said Cousineau, who was happy to finally follow in his father's footsteps.

Marie-Michèle Gagnon won her third Canadian Championship title this week in Thursday's race, finishing first in the slalom event, almost two seconds ahead of everyone.  

Gagnon, 24, who already won Wednesday's giant slalom and Sunday's super-combined title earlier this week finished with a two-run combined time of 1:33.57.

"It went really well today," said the athlete from Lac-Etchemin, Que. "I am happy because I'm racing on new boots right now and I tried on new settings, that I wouldn't tried if I was racing World Cup races.

"What was good is that I wasn't nervous at the beginning of the race to not finish the race, I was nervous because I wanted to do well."

This is Gagnon's sixth career National Championship title — her first one was in 2000 as she won the super-combined at Le Massif, Que.

"It was a really good week for me," added Gagnon. "My goal this week was to try and score downhill points but I wasn't able too, so I'm a little disappointed by that.

"What is good is that I managed to win every event that I am in the top 30 in World Cup. That shows how consistent my skiing has been."

Erin Mielzynski of Guelph, Ont., was runner-up for the Canadian Champion title, finishing second with a time of 1:35.60.

"It's always nice to be second," said Mielzynski. "I was hoping to have given more in this race. I made a couple of mistakes in my first run and my second run I wasn't quite on it. Second place is nice though.

"I was hoping for more in my second run. Obviously, a Canadian title would have been good."

Third place went to Brittany Phelan of Mont-Tremblant, Que., who crossed the finish line with a two-run combined time of 1:35.94.

On the men's side, Paul Stutz, of Banff, Alta., finished in second place with a time of 1:34.01.

"That was a lot of work, with a lot of turns," said an out-of-breath Stutz in the finish area after the grueling second slalom run.

Third place went to Calgary's Brad Spence, who crossed the finish line with a time of 1:34.70.