Britt Janyk (Whistler, BC), preparing to compete in a World Cup ski race in her hometown for the first time, finished second in today’s opening training for the TELUS Whistler Ladies Downhill. Teammate Kelly VanderBeek (Kitchener, ON) was also impressive, finishing fourth.
Janyk finished in a time of one minute 46.67 seconds, just 0.13s behind this season’s overall points leader American Lindsey Vonn.
“It’s really exciting to be home, to leave the start and hear everybody cheering for me. It’s a great feeling,” said Janyk, an alumni of the Whistler Mountain Ski Club. “It’s great to cross the finish and see people I know, people I grew up with. And My Mom is here, working on the hill.”
The 27-year-old Janyk said she was really impressed with the condition of the course, describing it as technical and difficult.
“On this course you have to be awake from start to finish, you can’t let up anywhere and it’s got a nice big jump in the finish,” said Janyk, who is currently third in the overall Ladies DH standings.
“I skied it well but I know where I can make some changes. It’s just the first training. I just tried to ski relaxed, to feel the course out and the line out today. I’m going to look to stay in the top group throughout the rest of the training runs,” she added.
“It would be amazing to be on the podium here, that’s what I’m shooting for on Friday. I’m just going to have fun with it and enjoy the run,” said Janyk, who won a World Cup ski race in Aspen earlier this season.
VanderBeek finished fourth in a time of one minute 47.02, just 0.30s behind Marie Marchand-Arvier of France who was third.
“There are no words to describe the excitement. It’s not the same kind of nerves as it normally is, I think we’re all just so excited to be out there, to be finally on the track,” said VanderBeek. “This is our first run today and we’re going to be here for the Olympics and we have a World Cup this Friday. We’re all in the mix and that’s so fun.”
“I’m fourth and Britt is second. I know I made a huge mistake in the middle and nearly went out and I think every single person made huge mistakes today, so part of this course will also be just staying calm through the mistakes,” added VanderBeek.
Emily Brydon (Fernie, BC), who earned the first World Cup downhill victory of her career in St. Moritz earlier this month, finished today’s downhill training in 24th. Danielle Poleschuk (Calgary, AB) was 43rd while Emilie Desforges (Montréal, QC) did not finish.
The TELUS Whistler DH training #2 is schedule to take place tomorrow beginning at 10:45 a.m.
For all the latest information on “TELUS presents the Whistler World Cup,” please visit http://www.whistler-worldcup.com/
FLASH QUOTES
Britt Janyk (Whistler, BC) 2nd place
On her performance:
“I know I can ski fast on this hill. I know the hill so I’m going to try and use that to my advantage. I grew up skiing down this run daily.”
On the team’s performance:
“We knew we could do it and it’s really nice and rewarding to see that we are doing it and that we’re producing results every weekend. We’ve been so consistent and we’re looking forward to finishing the season off strong.
It feels like we’ve got a wave going right now, but we’ve worked hard to have a consistency. We’ve stuck to the plan that we started with at the beginning of the winter and I think that’s what we’re going to keep doing right up until 2010.
Kelly VanderBeek (Kitchener, ON) 4th place
On the course:
“The course never stops from top to bottom, you’re always turning, you’re always on edge, you’re always working, lots of terrain, air all over the place and one really big one at the bottom but the lots of little hops for which you really have to be on your line.”
“You have to be smart to run this course, so I think a lot of experienced and smart skiers will do something here, but you also have to be risky enough, so it’s going to be a fine line here between being risky enough and going out of the course and being too smart, it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.”
“The speed isn’t as high as some courses, but the tracks always speed up by race day and at the same time, it’s a pretty gnarly hill so they have to control our speed. It’s a fine line for the course setters to keep it fast, keep it aggressive, but also keep it as safe as downhill can be.”
Emily Brydon (Fernie, BC) 24th place
On the course:
“It felt good to go down the hill for the first time, you get all the little kinks out. I took a bit of a wide line, but it was really fun. You can hear people cheering in the start and we’re home again. It’s really cool.”
“It’s challenging because there’s no point in the course where you can let up and re-focus. It’s constantly coming at you. You just have to really stay focused and charge. It’s the kind of course where maybe it’s not the smartest to cut the line – you can actually ski faster by skiing smart and producing more speed.
You try to make every course suitable to your abilities. I think that our team in general has done a lot of technical training for this sort of course and so as a group we’re very capable on it. I think that this year for me, I’ve skied a lot better technically and I’m doing well in the turney sections.
Lindsay Vonn (USA) 1st place
On the course:
“The course is awesome, it’s really fun, there’s a little bit of everything. It’s got technical, there are some traverses and some big sweeping turns, there’s two jumps that carry pretty good and there are a couple of gliding sections. I think it has everything that you could ever want in a downhill.”
On the Canadian team:
“The Canadian team has done an amazing job. It’s really cool to see, they’re a great group of girls, they have a lot of energy and they’re always fun and happy. It’s really nice to see them doing well.”
