ALPINE:

Préfontaine secures Nor-Am overall GS title at Whistler

March 17, 2011 — Alpine Canada  

WHISTLER, B.C.  — Marie-Pier Préfontaine doubled up at the Northwest Funds Nor-Am Cup on Thursday, winning the giant slalom race and clinching the overall discipline title.

With Thursday's victory Préfontaine, of Saint-Sauveur, Que., has 480 points, more than 200 points ahead of second-placed Nadja Vogel of Switzerland, with only one giant slalom race left.

"It's good to come here and win the title," said Préfontaine. "There's still one more race tomorrow, but I think I've pretty much locked up the Nor-Am giant slalom title for the year."

Préfontaine, 23, crossed the finish line with a two-run combined time of 1 minute, 59.65 seconds. She was fastest in the first run by more than a second.

"My goal today was for sure to win by as much as I could," said Préfontaine. "I've had a good season in World Cup and it's too bad I missed the World Cup Finals by just a couple of points. So I came here to ski well and to try to win both giant slalom races.

"I had a good first run today and I was ahead by a lot going into second run. I made a mistake and I had a pretty bad second run. I guess
because I was still ahead by a lot of time in the first run, it was good enough to win the race."

Prospect Group athlete Madison Irwin of Collingwood, Ont., finished second with a two-run combined time of 1:59.97. She was also the fastest junior Thursday.

"The race was a lot of fun today," said Irwin, 18. "What's been working for me lately is just to get into a competitive headspace in the start and really just think of skiing, because that's really what we're all out here to do. Skiing is what we all love and racing is just kind of the cherry on top.

"Every race is an opportunity to prove yourself. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. I'm trying to take every opportunity I can and I'm taking these last few opportunities pretty seriously to see if I can prove myself at the next level."

In the men's slalom race, Brad Spence of Calgary, Alta., finished third with a two-run combined time of 1:30.69.

"In the first run, the conditions were a little bit different than I am used to," said Spence, 26. "It took a little bit of figuring out and I think everyone was in the same boat with this soft Whistler snow. In the second run I charged a little bit more. I can't be really upset with third, even if my objective was to come here and win.

Patrick Biggs of Orleans, Ont., finished fifth with a time of 1:31.41 but managed to clock the fastest time on the second run (42.08).

"I needed to make some time up in the second run because my first run was pretty slow," said Biggs. "The course was pretty straight and actually really fast so the course held up pretty well. I really didn't ski well in the first run. I started 20 and that probably didn't help."

Trevor White of Calgary, Alta., was fourth with a time of 1:31.22. Trevor Philp of Calgary  was third in the junior category in the slalom race, finishing 20th overall. 

Eve Routhier of Sherbrook, Que., Erin Mielzynski of Collingwood, Ont., and Brittany Phelan of Mont-Tremblant, Que., finished sixth, seventh and 10th respectively in the giant slalom.

The women will race another giant slalom Friday and the men will race slalom.