Two Americans kick off World Junior Championships with downhill medals

By Published On: February 23rd, 2005Comments Off on Two Americans kick off World Junior Championships with downhill medals

Two Americans kick off World Junior Championships with downhill medalsThe world junior championships got underway today in Bardonecchia, Italy, with two races: Women’s and men’s downhill. Two Americans, Christopher Beckmann and Erik Fisher, finished second and third in the men’s race, behind Rok Perko of Slovenia.

“Our technician had the skis running fast,” said Beckmann, who finished sixth in last year’s installment of the race. “I was definitely more nervous this year, since I had higher expectations.”

The top two spots in the women’s race went to Nadia and Elena Fanchini, sisters from Italy. The top American in the women’s race was Resi Stiegler of Jackson Hole, who finished 15th.

Click here for complete results of the men’s race, or here for the results of the women’s race.

Beckmann misplanted his pole at the start of the race. Asked if the thought that might have cost him the two tenths he needed to win the race, he wasn’t so sure. “I blasted out of there trying to make up for it,” he said.

Beckmann is a product of the New York Ski Education Foundation. He and Fisher were sitting in first and second until Perko came down wearing bib 15. “He’s done well on the Europa Cup,” Fisher explained.

Fisher, a product of the Bogus Basin Ski Racing Alliance and the Rowmark Ski Academy, said “everything was perfect” on the day of the race.

“It’s flat at the top and there’s lots of terrain,” he said, asked about the course, at Bardonecchia, not far from where the Olympics will be underway next February. “There’s a pitch of about three or four gates, not too steep but not too flat. It was pretty sweet. I liked it.”

Nadia Fanchini was fourth in the world championship super G in late January. Her older sister Elena, third today, was the surprise silver medalist in the world championship super G.

Last year, the U.S. Ski Team fielded the best team of any nation at the annual world junior championships, which were in Slovenia. Click here to see the roster for this year’s American team.

Share This Article

About the Author: Pete Rugh