American Wallasch, Canadian Sherret win World Juniors ski cross titles

By Published On: April 2nd, 2015Comments Off on American Wallasch, Canadian Sherret win World Juniors ski cross titles

VALMALENCO, Italy – The final event of the 2015 Junior World Championships took place Wednesday, as ski cross victories for Canada’s India Sherret and America’s Tyler Wallasch closed out nine days of freestyle action in Valmalenco, Italy.

Sherret is considered to be one of the top Canadian development team athletes and came into Valmalenco on a streak that saw her win both the Canadian and Italian national championships as well as score a second-place result at the Swiss national championships immediately before arriving for competition at the JWCs.

However, in her big final heat, Sherret found herself matched up against both the German and Swedish national champions in Daniela Maier and Alexandra Edebo, as well as the top 2014-15 Europa Cup skier in German Katherina Tordi.

Despite the stacked field of future World Cup stars, 18-year-old Sherret was able to come out on top, taking gold for a Canadian team that has seen a decline in numbers on its ladies ski cross roster over the past few seasons. Maier ultimately took silver for the promising German squad, Edebo bronze, and Tordi was forced to settle four fourth place.

I’m so happy for our entire team! We’ve had a lot of success over the past two weeks winning three national championships in Canada, Switzerland, and Italy. To win the World Junior Championships is huge and it says a lot about our program and the next wave of ski cross athletes in Canada,” said Sherret.

In the men’s competition, Wallasch was the recipient of some good fortune on his way to claiming the biggest victory of his career, as French skier Youri Duplessis Kergomard was disqualified for illegal contact in their quarter final heat, moving Wallasch from third to second and through to the semi-finals.

In the big final, Wallasch was matched up against the relatively unheralded Tim Hronek of Germany, big Russian Artem Kostenko, and the upstart Canadian Kristofor Mahler.

20-year-old Mahler, who has only been competing in FIS-sanctioned ski cross events since January of this year, is clearly one to watch. He won all of his heats on the way to the final and was leading the big final up until the final few corners before slipping out and letting the rest of the competitors through.

“I’ve been skiing really well over the last few weeks and winning third at the Canadian national championships really gave me a confidence boost coming into these last races,” Mahler said. “All of the coaches and ski service staff have been incredible and our new Next Gen/Development Team has a great energy. We all want to make the next step to the World Cup team.”

Wallasch, just behind Mahler before his mistake, was able to slide past and hold on to the lead through the final few seconds of the race to claim the gold medal.

Hronek, in second, added another silver to Germany’s medal haul for the day, Kostenko was able to claim third place and the bronze, and Mahler was left with a disappointing fourth-place result on a day where he looked sure to take the win.

With the final results of the 2015 World Juniors in, the tabulations were made to determine the winner of the 2015 Marc Hodler trophy for the standout nation of the championships. With four medals in slopestyle and halfpipe (Birk Irving, Caroline Claire, Jake Mageau, and Anna Gorham) plus the addition of Wallasch’s win, the USA was able to claim this year’s trophy with 129 points, followed closely by Russia with 109, and France in a distant third place with 49 points.

Release courtesy of FIS

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