ALPINE:

Irwin, Hudec podium in super-G at Nor-Am Cup Finals

March 19, 2011 — Alpine Canada  

WHISTLER, B.C. — Madison Irwin secured her fourth straight podium finish with a third-place in the super-G Saturday at the Northwest Funds Nor-Am Cup Finals in Whistler, B.C.

The 18-year-old, who clocked a time of 1 minute, 10.34 seconds Saturday, was second in Wednesday's slalom and Thursday's giant slalom and third in Friday's giant slalom. She sits seventh in the overall Nor-Am rankings with 550 points.

Prospect group member Irwin represented Canada at the World Junior Alpine Ski Championships in Crans Montana, Switzerland, in January. Her best result was a 10th-place finish in giant slalom.

"Madison has been on a roll in the last month since the world juniors,” said Prospect Group head coach Jean-Sébastien Labrie. "She raced a lot of FIS races and Europa Cup in Europe before these finals in Whistler. She did pretty well there as well.

"I knew it was a matter of time before she would start putting races together. She skied really well these last few days and I'm really satisfied with her results."

Canada had a podium on the men's side as well with veteran Jan Hudec finishing third, with a time of 1:08.79. 

Hudec, of Calgary, Alta., arrived late Friday night from Europe, coming fresh off a season-best 10th place finish in Kvitfjell, Norway, in one of the downhill events.

"My race was decent, I knew I had to take a lot of risks to win because these guys are really fast," said Hudec. "The problem is that on soft snow like this, the more risk you take the chances to make mistakes are bigger.

"I missed a couple of chances and at a couple of gates I went overly wide because I went to straight the gate before. I don't have any regrets, though. I went for it and tried to go fast."

Saturday was another difficult day on the slopes as snow started falling early in the morning and did not stop until late in the afternoon.

"The conditions were really soft," added Hudec. "There are no excuses though; everyone is skiing on the same snow. It's just tough when you ski on ice all year and then you come here and you have to ski on super soft snow.

"The set-up works differently and you kind of have to regroup before the race and change your mind frame."

Ryan Cochran-Siegle of the USA finished first with a time of 1:08.55. His teammate Chris Frank finished second (1:08.64).

Dustin Cook of Lac Sainte-Marie, Que., finished fourth with a time of 1:08.81, only 0.02 seconds behind Hudec. That puts him third overall in the super-G rankings with 256 points with Sunday's super-G still to go. Siegle is first in the standings (425) and Thomas Biesemeyer, also of the USA, is second (337).

"The snow is really weird, you can't really hold an edge when you carve," said Cook. "The course is also really slow. I have to say, the conditions today are 10 million times better than during the giant slalom race Tuesday."

Ben Thomsen of Invermere, B.C., finished in 18th place. Tyler Nella of Toronto, Ont., and Kelby Halbert of Bradford, Ont., finished 28th and 30th respectively.

The women were supposed to race a super-combined Saturday, but due to the heavy snow, the slalom portion of the race was cancelled — only the super-G counted as a race.

The final rankings in super-combined show Julia Ford of the USA on top with 160 points and Kiley Staples in second place with 145 points. The top Canadian was Madison McLeish of Canmore, Alta., who finished fifth with 60 points.

The GMC Nations Cup took place at the end of the day Saturday, as Canadians went head-to-head with their American peers. The Nations Cup title went to Canada with a final score of 26 to 22.

The event draws to a close Sunday. The women compete in another super-G and the men's will race a super-combined and another super-G.