ALPINE:

Janyk, 20th, leads Canadians in women's downhill training

Nov. 30, 2010 — Alpine Canada 

LAKE LOUISE, Alberta — It was a fast start for France's Marion Rolland on Tuesday, opening the Lake Louise Winterstart women's downhill training at Lake Louise Ski Area with the fastest time.

Rolland finished in 1 minute, 31.70 seconds as snow fell throughout the training run, 0.34 faster than American Julia Mancuso, followed by Andrea Fischbacher of Austria.

Canadian Britt Janyk finished 20th in 1:33.31.

"I'm definitely excited for the new season to come. It's great to get the first training run done," said Janyk, 30, the veteran of the Canadian women's team. "It's certainly icy in certain places but overall I think it actually ran well. I didn't have that much problem with visibility, it wasn't that bad. I think earlier today it was harder to see, but when I went down it was good."

Georgia Simmerling was 34th in 1:34.04 while 20-year-old Victoria Stevens of Mont-Tremblant, Que., placed 47th in the first World Cup speed event training run of her career.

"It's definitely new to train with all of these people at a World Cup," said Stevens. "It's been really cool to watch other girls inspect and interact with the coaches. It's good to think that they will be there the next couple days and I will learn a lot."

Kelly McBroom took a significant step in her return from a right knee injury, finishing 51st in 1:35.23. She has not competed since sustaining the injury at a Nor-Am race in February 2009. Stefanie Irwin was 52nd.

"I am pretty familiar with the course because I was a forerunner at the World Cup a few years ago and I ran a few of the Nor-Ams. So I feel like I have run the track probably about 20 times or so," said Irwin. "But they have moved some gates around and stuff so it feels a little different. And this is a World Cup, and that just has a different feeling to it."

The second training run is scheduled for Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. MT, with the opening downhill race taking place Friday at 12:30 MT. Saturday's second downhill race is also scheduled for 12:30 p.m., with the super-G on Sunday concluding the event at 11 a.m.

CBC will have live coverage on www.cbcsports.ca as well as cable channel bold. Radio-Canada also carries Friday's race live on www.radio-canada.ca. S-Magazine

Lake Louise women's World Cup downhill training No. 1. results