Home-field advantage: Canada's Guay takes world juniors GS

Home-field advantage: Canada’s Guay takes world juniors GSMONT-SAINTE-ANNE, Quebec Quebec native Stefan Guay raced to victory on his home turf in the giant slalom at the Junior World Championships on March 6. Guay took bronze in the downhill last week, and he was also the bronze medalist in GS at last year’s world juniors in Bardonecchia, Italy.

Even at so ripe an age, Guay has already had an impressive career, but he also has big shoes to fill – his brother Erik was a top-pranked Canadian junior, and has become one of the fastest skiers on the World Cup this year. But Stefan did something today that his brother never did, as his giant slalom win was the first ever by a Canadian at the Junior World Championships.

Big brother was watching from afar.

“My brother Erik phoned a friend to see how I was doing in Quebec between the runs,” said Guay. “[Then] he called to congratulate me after the race was over.”

The weather was spectacular on Monday, and the sunny, blue skies only added to the jubilation of the spectators, who anxiously awaited Guay, running bib one, in the finish arena.

The first run course was comprised of huge offset turns, around 29 meters apart, and racers seemed to cover every inch of real estate on the Crete-Beauregard trail. Guay set a 1:07.17 pace that would not be bettered. Finland’s Petteri Kantola skied a beautiful run and tripped the finish beam just back of Guay at 1:07.24. Upon the run’s completion, only Sandro Viletta of Switzerland was in the same second as Guay and Kantola, nearly five tenths behind Kantola.

Viletta crashed in the afternoon run, which was set much like the morning’s course, and the cushion that Guay and Kantola put between themselves and the field proved insurmountable – despite a hard charging Carlo Janka, from Swtitzerland, who won the second run and slid into third-place on the day.

“My skiing felt good in both runs,” said Guay, who had his eyes set on the GS since the series’ start. “I skied two great courses and managed to avoid major mistakes.”

American Tim Kelley, who finished fifth in the slalom a day earlier, put down another strong performance by skiing from bib 23 to 11th place. Andrew Weribrecht was the only other American in the top 30, finishing 18th.

The U.S. men’s team will watch the women compete in giant slalom on the same trail tomorrow. According to coach Rewk Patten, the men’s squad feel like it has some heavy legs, and they’re looking forward to a little down time.

“Overall, I feel like we did a damn good job here,” said Patten, adding, “We didn’t really know what to expect, but four top-five finishes is respectable by any standard. … We’re coming off a pretty tough stretch, so we’re looking forward to having a day off.”

After the women’s GS on March 7, both sexes will compete in the Nations Cup dual to conclude the championships on March 8.

Men’s giant slalom
Junior World Championships
Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec
March 6, 2006

1. GUAY Stefan CAN
1:07.17 1:13.33 2:20.50
2. KANTOLA Petteri FIN
1:07.24 1:13.97 2:21.21
3. JANKA Carlo SUI
1:08.46 1:12.95 2:21.41
4. ZACH Michael AUT
1:08.49 1:13.31 2:21.80
5. BAUMANN Romed AUT
1:08.07 1:14.09 2:22.16
6. FALCOZ Lucas FRA
1:09.07 1:13.13 2:22.20
7. HAUGEN Leif Kristian NOR
1:08.82 1:13.47 2:22.29
8. PUCHNER Joachim AUT
1:08.70 1:13.69 2:22.39
9. DOPFER Fritz AUT
1:08.49 1:14.03 2:22.52
10. PAQUIN Paul FRA
1:08.98 1:13.57 2:22.55