Vanderbek builds momentum with 9th place in Cortina DH

Switzerland’ Gisin is golden

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, ITA –Kelly VanderBeek (Kitchener, ON) achieved her best downhill result of the season today on Cortina’s famed Olympia delle Tofane course. Despite encountering challenges in the start hut, she crossed the finish line in 9^th place with a time of one minute 17.52 seconds.

Switzerland’s Dominique Gisin was crowned queen of the day with a time of 1:16.98. She edged USA’s Lindsey Vonn by 0.15 seconds and Sweden’s Anja Paerson by 0.17.

This marks Gisin’s second consecutive downhill victory and the first Swiss win of a Cortina downhill since Heidi Zurbriggen in 1997. The 23-year-old racer from Engelberg claimed her first career downhill win this past January in Altenmarkt- Zauchensee (AUT).

Poised to take advantage of a solid training run achieved yesterday where she finished third, Canada’s VanderBeek offered a solid skiing performance but didn’t optimize her start out of the hut.

“I could feel that I was skiing really well throughout the course,” said VanderBeek. “But after looking at the intervals, I realized I had one of the slowest times in the top section. The coaches and I looked at the video and we noticed that I had tripped the start wand a fraction of a second before actually leaving the start hut. If I hadn’t made that rookie mistake, I probably could have made it on the podium.”

VanderBeek also finished 4^th in the Cortina downhill last year, narrowly missing the podium behind follow teammate Emily Brydon (Fernie, BC).

“This result still feels very good but I’m not 100% satisfied,” added VanderBeek who has consistently been amongst the fastest racers in training runs.

In excess of 100 centimetres of snow accumulated in Cortina this week, forcing several schedule changes, including the outright cancellation of a makeup downhill race intended as a replacement for the missed Lake Louise World Cup held at the beginning of the season.

“The conditions were outstanding given how much snow we got here,” said Britt Janyk (Whistler, BC) who came in 20^th place with a time of 1:18.14.

“The volunteers did an amazing job pulling off the races, even though this meant bringing the down the downhill start to the typical super-G start,” added Janyk who has achieved three top 20 results in downhill and two top 12 results in super G on the World Cup circuit.

Emily Brydon (Fernie, BC), who recorded the third best time at the second interval, skied into a hole in the mid section, lost her line, and was unable to recover her speed. She crossed the finish line with a time of 1:18.47, placing her in 31^st position.

Other members of the Canadian team racing today also included Emilie Desforges (Montréal, QC) 46^th, Georgia Simmerling (West Vancouver, BC) 49^th and Larisa Yurkiw (Owen Sound, ON) 54^th.

Sunday’s race will showcase a women’s giant slalom which will feature Canada’s Geneviève Simard (Val Morin, QC) and Marie-Michèle Gagnon (Lac Etchemin, QC). The Cortina super-G, which was initially planned for Thursday, has now been moved to Monday.

Following today’s competition, Vonn still leads the downhill standings with 240 points, a narrow 14 point lead ahead of Gisin. Canada’s Brydon is 8^th with 81 points, VanderBeek moves up to 12^th with 59 points, Janyk is 14^th with 51 points, and Yurkiw is 40^th with 2 points.

Vonn continues to lead the World Cup overall standings with 856 points, ahead of Germany’s Maria Riesch who has 810 points. Paerson holds third with 762 points.

Radio-Canada will broadcast Saturday and Sunday’s races from Cortina live on www.radio-canada.ca beginning at 4:15 a.m. ET.

Rogers Sportsnet is also scheduled to broadcast the ladies’ Giant Slalom race from Cortina d’Ampezzo, ITA Sunday at 2 p.m. in all viewing regions expect for the West, where it will play at 5 p.m. MT.

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, ITA – JAN. 24, 2009 – DOWNHILL – LADIES

COMPLETE RESULTS : http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/610.html?sector=AL&raceid=54076