Injuries and retirements have played havoc with the senior ranks of the Canadian alpine ski team but a glimmer of hope for the future is emerging at the International Ski Federation’s (FIS) world junior championships at Crans Montana, Switzerland.
In Monday’s slalom, five racers finished in the top 30 -- three of them in the top 11 -- indicating a depth of talent that could put Canada’s next generation among the elite ski nations. It is one of the best results a Canadian team has enjoyed in the junior worlds.
“Hopefully we can keep building on that in the next couple of days,” said Erik Read of Calgary, the fastest Canadian in two slalom rounds. The son of legendary Crazy Canuck Ken Read finished sixth with a two-run combined time of one minute, 31.54 seconds.
Already identified as a member of Alpine Canada’s Prospect Group, Read got his feet wet in a World Cup slalom debut last week at Schladming, Austria last week. He’d almost completed the World Cup run before going off course six gates from the end.
Monday, he slipped and caught an edge halfway through his first run, but pulled himself together, regained his balance and had a 16th place finish. He found another gear four his second run and went up 10 spots in the rankings.
“My first run was all right, but the conditions were pretty soft,” said Read. “At about half way down I caught an edge... but I skied the bottom really well. Despite that I was still really happy with my first run.
“The second run was a lot better and the conditions in the afternoon were beautiful. I had to deal with the ruts and the snow conditions but fought through it and I skied really well. I’m really happy with my result today.”
It was Read’s best result at the FIS juniors, following a ninth in the super combined at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, in 2009. Host Switzerland claimed the top two podium places in the slalom. Reto Schmidiger had a time of 1:28.54 and Justin Murisier was second, in 1:30.08. France’s Mathias Rolland had 1:30.54 for third.
The second Canadian to finish in the top 10 was Toronto’s Philip Brown, also in the Prospect Group, who finished 10th with a two-run combined time of 1:31.92. Brown was 30th after the first run, but skied aggressively the second time, posting the fastest second run of the 87 racers. It’s his second top 15 finish in two days, after he was 11th in Sunday’s giant slalom race. Only 87 athletes of a starting 163 made it to the second round.
Calgary’s Trevor Philp, 19, also a member of the prospect team, was 11th at 1:32.01 for a career best at the world juniors. Dominic Garand of Mont-Tremblant, Que., , a rookie at the world juniors, was 23rd with a time of 1:33.71. Cody Pederson of Calgary finished 27th in 1:35.49.
The women had their second downhill training run. Sarah Freeman of Fernie, B.C., was Canada’s fastest entry as she clocked in a time of 1:35.41, which put her in 9th place. Prospect athlete Julia Roth, of Waterloo, Ont., finished 16th with a time of 1:35.82. The last Canadian out of the gate was Madison McLeish, who finished 34th place with a time of 1:37.69.