World juniors: SG to Schmidhofer, GS to Hirscher

By Published On: March 9th, 2007Comments Off on World juniors: SG to Schmidhofer, GS to Hirscher

In a repeat of the giant slalom result the previous day, Austria's Nicole Schmidhofer added the super G crown to her World Junior Championships medal haul Friday, with Tina Weirather in second and Eva-Maria Brem in third, an exact medal match up of the GS.


ZAUCHENSEE, Austria — In a repeat of the giant slalom result the previous day, Austria's Nicole Schmidhofer added the super G crown to her World Junior Championships medal haul Friday, with Tina Weirather in second and Eva-Maria Brem in third, an exact medal matchup of the GS.
    The North American contingent had a bit better showing in this outing with Leanne Smith posting the 10th-best placing. Smith had a time of 1:21.06 with four teammates in the top 30: Kiley Staples (Park City, Utah; Rowmark Academy/U.S. Development Team) 23rd; Hannah Victory (Mammoth Lakes; Mammoth Mountain Ski Team) 24th; Katie Hartman (Breckenridge, Colo.; Team Summit) 27th; and Lyndee Janowiak (Manistee, Mich.; Park City Ski Education Foundation/U.S. Development Team) 28th
    “Leanne skied well, worked her way into the top 10,” U.S. Competition Director Walt Evans, the team leader, said Friday night. “Megan McJames [Park City, Utah; Park City SEF/U.S. B Team] was sailing along and seemed certain be in the top five but she went down on a hip. She recovered but that ended her shot at challenging for a medal.”
    Canadian Marie-Michele Gagnon finished 15th and Elli Terwiel of Canada was 32nd.
    Schmidhofer and Weirather picked up their third medals of the event.
    “I have so many fans here that I do not even need to look at the scoreboard to know how well I did,” Schmidhofer said. “My goal here was to finish in the top five at least once. I hope Salzburg will get the 2014 Olympics — that would be my long-time goal.”
    Both Weirather and bronze medalist Brem noted that they made several mistakes in the race. Still, Weirather said, “I am very happy with my performances here so far, although it is too bad that only the winners are allowed to participate in the World Cup Finals next week.”

Hirscher tops in men’s GS
    Austrian Marcel Hirscher won the men’s GS in Flachau, completing the two-run event in 2 minutes, 14.01 seconds. Finland’s Marcus Sandell won silver, .85 back of the winner, and Sweden’s Matts Olsson was third, 1.16 back.
    Will Brandenburg was 14th to lead the Americans. Tommy Ford was 32nd, Travis Ganong 44th, Jacob Lund 52nd, while Bump Heldman was disqualified on the second run and Max Hammer did not finish the second run. Brandenburg had a two-run time of 2:16.42.
    It was a tough day for Canada, too, with Dustin Cook 28th and Tyler Nella 34th to lead the way.
    The championships resume Saturday with a slalom for men while the women get a day off. Sunday, the men will run super G, which was postponed because of fog earlier in the week, while the women conclude their schedule with slalom.
    U.S. Competition Director Walt Evans, the team leader, said four men will leave after the slalom to return for NorAm Finals at Canada’s Panorama Ski Area in British Columbia. Brandenburg, Max Hammer (Jackson Hole, Wyo.; Jackson Hole Ski Team/U.S. Development Team); Bump Heldman (Auburn, Maine; Gould Academy Snow Sports Club/U.S. Development Team); and Jacob Lund (Hudson, Wis.; Stratton Mountain School) will depart from world juniors.
    “The women need a day off, so this works fine and we expect this will help bring them back nicely Sunday in that slalom,” Evans said.

For complete results, click here.

 

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About the Author: Pete Rugh