Lake Placid Hosting NorAm Finals
NorAm Finals are underway at Whiteface in Lake Placid, NY and this year there's a stronger than normal field. Many racers who did not qualify for World Cup Finals from both the U.S. Ski Team and Canadian national team are competing for coveted World Cup spots and FIS results to improve their world rank.
Saturday, Canada's Robbie Dixon won a giant slalom, making it two for two as he also was the fastest in Thursday's super G. Julien Cousineau and Jeffery Frisch, also of Canada, were second and third in the race. The top American was Tommy Ford (Bend, OR) in seventh, followed by former U.S. Ski Team athlete Dane Spencer (Boise, ID).
In the women's slalom, Canadian Anna Goodman came from third in the first run to win overall. Sterling Grant (Amery, WI) finished nearly two seconds back to come in second and Brigitte Acton of Canada was third.
Racing began Thursday with a men's and women's super g and women's super combined. Canadian Robbie Dixon took the opening men's win with teammate Stephan Guay in second and the U.S. Ski Team's Jake Zamansky (Park City, UT) third.
Canadians also beat the Americans at Whiteface Thursday, taking the top three spots of the women's race. Larisa Yurkiw won the super g and Marie-Michele Gagnon was runner up. Emilie Desforges was third and Chelsea Marshall (Pittsfield, VT) led the Americans in fourth place.
In the ladies super combined (which added a run of slalom to the morning's super g) Yurkiw hung on for the win and Kaylin Richardson (Edina, MN) skied the fastest slalom leg to move into second. Marshall hung on for third.
Friday, the women raced another super g and it was Yurkiw, Desforges and Marshall in the top three, while the men's races were cancelled.
Both men's nation spots for World Cup went to Canadians in super g; Stephan Guay and Louis-Pierre Helie finished first and second respectively. Helie also won the season's NorAm super combined title. Canada's Ryan Semple was second.
Julia Ford (Plymouth, NH) a member of the U.S. Ski Team's development squad moved ahead of Yurkiw to win the super combined title, and Alice McKennis (Glenwood Springs, CO) finished first in the season's super g standings. Candaian Kelly McBroom claimed the other nation's spot.
Sunday, the men race another giant slalom and the ladies will get one more chance at slalom points to decide the season's leaders and winners of coveted nations spots in the technical disciplines
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Lake Placid Hosting NorAm Finals
