Emily Brydon of Fernie was going for gold today at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships but will settle for 11th place in today’s ladies downhill in Val d’Isère, FRA.
Brydon, who was gaining speed and momentum throughout the course, finished as the top Canadian in a time of one minute 32.44 seconds.
“I was going for the win today,” said Brydon. “Eleventh in the world is not the end of the world but we are going for the podium every day. I wanted more.”
The battle for gold came down to American Lindsey Vonn, who captured the ladies super-G earlier in the competition and Swiss teenager Lara Gut. It was Vonn who came out on top, winning by over half a second in a time of 1:30.31 with Gut second, for her second medal of the 2009 World Championships following her second place finish in Friday’s super combined. Italian Nadia Fanchini captured the first World Championships podium of her career, finishing third in 1:30.88.
Kelly VanderBeek (Kitchener, ON) finished 21st in 1:33.59.
“These last two weeks have been a struggle for sure,” said VanderBeek, who incredibly popped out both shoulders while training for a World Cup race two weeks ago.
“I battled today and fought really hard the whole way down so I am happy about that. The top was good but the bottom was a struggle. I skied a lot more like I can today so that’s good,” VanderBeek said.
Britt Janyk (Whistler, BC) looked very good on the top of the course, including the second fastest opening interval, but was carrying too much speed into a tricky section on the bottom and missed a gate.
Janyk said she was going for it, boosted by John Kucera (Calgary, AB) gold medal performance in the men’s downhill on Saturday.
“It was so cool to watch Kucera come out with a win and I wanted to do something for the girl’s side today. But there are a lot of lessons from this World Championships that we will take into Olympic next year,” Janyk said.
The Pontiac Alpine Ski Series on CBC has coverage of the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships from Val d’Isère Feb. 14 and Feb. 15 at 3 p.m. Radio-Canada Sports also has a show on Dec. 14 beginning again at 3:00 p.m. ET.
The World Championships schedule calls for a day off tomorrow followed by the team event on Wednesday.
WORLD CHAMPS NOTE: For more Canadian content regarding the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships including a history of Canadian podiums and the 2009 Canadian team announcement, please go to www.canski.org and click on the event logo in What’s Hot.
