ALPINE:

Three Canadians place top 20 in world juniors women’s GS

Feb. 2, 2011 — Alpine Canada

CRANS MONTANA, Switzerland — It was another warm and sunny day in Crans Montana, Switzerland, on Wednesday as three future Canadian standouts finished in the top-20 in the giant slalom at the FIS World Junior Championships.

Canadian prospect athlete Madison Irwin, from Toronto, Ont., who came out of the gate wearing bib No. 54, was 20th after the first run but managed to clock the fifth-fastest second run, jumping to 10th overall.

"Giant slalom is definitely one of my strongest events so I was looking forward to this race. The first run was a struggle and going through those couple of gates right before the last pitch weren't easy, but I was expecting it to be harder, so it all turned out well," said Irwin, who finished with a two-run combined time of 2 minutes, 32.41 seconds.

"My second run was awesome. I made a little mistake near the end of the course but apart from that I had a pretty good run. I definitely cleaned it up compared to this morning. I'm really happy," added Irwin who had the lead for the next 10 racers after her.

The fastest girl was Sara Hector from Sweden, who finished in dramatic fashion as she almost slid on her hip near the end of the course but was able to regain control as she crossed the finish line with a time of 2:28.27.

Also on the podium was Italy's Lisa Magdalena Agerer, who finished second with a time of 2:28.43, and third place was taken by Wendy Holdener from Switzerland with at time of 2:29.44.

Another prospect athlete from Canmore, Alta., Madison McLeish, finished in 15th place with a combined time of 2:33.40.

Julia Roth, who was disappointed by her 30th place in downhill Tuesday, kept her focus and got her revenge by finishing 17th with a two-run time of 2:33.78. This was quite a feat for the young athlete from Waterloo, Ont., who hasn't had a lot of giant slalom training this season.

"I trained giant slalom four times this year so for me to finish with a good result like this is pretty awesome. I'm really happy about my run and I never expected to do this well and I scored points. This is a confidence booster for the events to come," said a smiling Roth, who had bib No. 71 at the start.

The first giant slalom run was a disaster as more than half of the field could not finish the race. One of the gates at the top of the last pitch seemed to create nightmares for the racers as it was almost impossible to go through if you didn't slow down before.

If you were beside a coach's radio around the course, the most common word you would hear was "out" — referring to racers skiing out of the course.

"In all of my coaching career, I've never asked an athlete to slow down in a course before a gate, and I had to tell our girls to do that today. That was a crazy course," said head coach Jean-Sébastien Labrie.

The coaching staff did an amazing job giving their course reports as all four of the Canadian contingency made it through the first run and onto the second one.

The last Canadian to take part in the race was Canadian Alpine Ski Team member Brittany Phelan, from Mont-Tremblant, Que., who was 11th after the first run but was unable to finish her second race. Had she finished, Phelan could have made it into the top five with the split times she was clocking.

"I couldn't hold it in the end. It's pretty disappointing since I know I had a good run. But tomorrow is the slalom so I'll focus on that. I'm racing giant slalom in three days in Arber-Zwiesel for a World Cup so I'll take my revenge there," said Phelan.

The men took part in their second downhill training run, and the fastest Canadian was once again Prospect Group athlete Erik Read, from Calgary, Alta., who finished in sixth place. Philip Brown, from Toronto, Ont., followed closely finishing in eighth place. Canmore, Alta.'s Andy Trow finished 21st, Tyler Werry, from Fernie, B.C., finished 32nd and Trevor Philp, from Calgary, Alta., finished 45th.

Mont-Tremblant's Dominique Garand was not able to finish his run.

Thursday will be a packed day with the men competing in the downhill in the morning and the women taking part in the slalom event later in the morning. S-Magazine