Juniors Worlds: Gauthier wins downhill, McKennis fourth

France’s Marine Gauthier took home the downhill gold today on the final day of competition at the 2009 FIS World Junior Ski Championships in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany. It was her first Junior Worlds podium.

Norway’s Lotte Smiseth Sejersted took the sliver to celebrate her 18th birthday, which was yesterday. Austria’s Nicole Schmidhofer rounded out the podium in third for her fourth career Junior Worlds podium in three years of competing.

American Alice McKennis was just off the podium in fourth place, accomplishing the best finish by an American woman in these championships. Teammates Julia Ford and Angel Collins finished 26th and 39th, respectively.

France’s Marine Gauthier took home the downhill gold today on the final day of competition at the 2009 FIS World Junior Ski Championships in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany. It was her first Junior Worlds podium, qualifying her for the upcoming World Cup finals at Are, Sweden.

“I’m so happy to have won that title as it qualifies me for the Finals at Are – this is so exciting,” said Gauthier. “I was aiming for a podium finish today after my good training run yesterday but I didn’t expect to win.”

She is the first French women to win gold in Junior Worlds downhill since Mélanie Suchet in 1994.

Norway’s Lotte Smiseth Sejersted took the sliver to celebrate her 18th birthday, which was yesterday. Austria’s Nicole Schmidhofer rounded out the podium in third for her fourth career Junior Worlds podium in three years of competing.

“It’s my best performance outside of Norway, I was only 29th last year in Formigal so this is also a huge improvement within a year,” said Sejersted. “I don’t know how many Norwegian have reached the podium in that event in the past but I guess there were not so many so this is just great.”

American Alice McKennis was just off the podium in fourth place, accomplishing the best finish by an American woman in these championships. Teammates Julia Ford and Angel Collins finished 26th and 39th, respectively.

Italy’s Federica Brignone, the daughter of former slalom star Maria Rosa Quario, finished the downhill 10th to claim the gold in the three-event combined ahead of Karin Hackl from Austria. Brignone’s medal, earned through consistent performances throughout the week, adds to the Italian success at these championships.
      
“I have not been very successful so far this week, so this combined title is definitely very positive for me,” said Brignone. “The gold medal is for sure my greatest achievement so far. I raced here last January during the World Cup event but I didn’t score any points then. It’s my first victory in a combined event. I’m now looking forward to the last races of the season. Hopefully it will again go well for me at the European Cup finals at Crans-Montana.”