Gagnon finishes 17th in Tarvisio super combined amidst difficult snow conditions
Marie-Michèle Gagnon finished 17th in the last super combined event of the season in Tarvisio, Italy, on Friday.
After the downhill portion of Friday's event Gagnon, of Lac-Etchemin, Que., was 36th. The 22 year-old athlete clocked the 10th fastest slalom run in very difficult snow conditions to jump up 20 spots in the final rankings as she finished with a two-run combined time of two minutes, 17.13 seconds.
Because of the heavy snow fall that occurred two days ago the downhill run got faster as the girls went down. Unfortunately for Gagnon, she was the seventh athlete out of the start gate for the first run.
"It was a little hard to have a great run from where I started this morning," said Gagnon. "I didn't have the luck of the draw. Because of the snow conditions on the track, the girls that started later had a cleaner and faster track than the first girls.
"I did have a really good downhill run and I was pretty satisfied with what I did. I definitely thought I would be in the top-30 but I didn't have that chance."
The snow conditions for the slalom run deteriorated quickly. That was apparent after the first couple of racers down the course found it was getting bumpier.
"For my slalom run, I was starting after all the fastest girls and I was pretty far back, so I knew I didn't have the advantage of a clean and fresh course," added Gagnon. "I know where I stand in slalom and I know what I can do so I just tried to go down as fast as possible. There wasn't much more to do," added Gagnon.
With a stellar slalom run, Slovenia's Tina Maze won the Friday's race with a time of 2:13.54. The win propelled her into second place in the super combined overall rankings with 212 points.
Lindsey Vonn of the USA finished second in Friday's race (2:13.72), giving her 220 points and allowing her to defend her super combined overall title. Germany's Maria Riesch, who was ranked first before this race, finished third with a time of 2:14.09. She grabbed third place overall in the super combined rankings with 205 points.
Gagnon, who started doing speed events this season competed in all three super combined races and finished in 15th place overall with 48 points. Her best result in a super combined event was 12th in Val d'Isère, France, in December.
"The coaches were really happy with my downhill race and I wasn't too far from the fast girls that had a similar start bib," added Gagnon. "Every day I do downhill I improve and I keep working hard and getting better in that discipline so I'm pretty satisfied with what I accomplished this season."
"She needs more experience and it is very difficult for her to do both speed and technical events," said ladies head coach Hugues Ansermoz. "It's a lot of volume and it takes too much of her energy. If she keeps training as much in speed events it will be in detriment to her technical racing and that is not what we want.
"She has the potential to be one of the best in slalom and giant slalom and that is what's important right now."
Whistler's Britt Janyk only took part in the downhill portion of the race to train ahead of Saturday's downhill race.
"Britt had a great run," said Ansermoz. "She had a good bib start and the course was fast. It was a great confidence boost for Britt for Saturday. It's a big race for her and she knows that she needs to ski well in order to qualify for the finals in Switzerland in two weeks."
The ladies will race the downhill event on Saturday in Tarvisio and it will be shown live on CBCSports.ca starting at 4:55 a.m. E.T. The race will be broadcasted on CBC's main network Saturday starting at 2:00 p.m. E.T.
