Duke Wins Back-to-Back Europa Cup SLs
LENGGRIES, Germany (Jan. 27) - Hailey Duke (Boise, ID) completed a sweep of weekend Europa Cup slaloms Sunday, capturing her second win in 24 hours. Sterling Grant (Amery, WI) made it two American women on the second podium, finishing in third place.
Sunday, Duke ran her podium streak to three Europa Cup slaloms with a blistering first run and a total time of 1:32.58. Sweden's Veronica Smed was runner-up in 1:33.53 while Grant, the 2006 NorAm slalom champion, had the second-fastest final run, finishing in 1:33.81. Kiley Staples (Park City, UT), the '07 NorAm slalom champion, was ninth, timed in 1:33.95.
Saturday, Duke also held off Smed for the win. Duke's two-run time was 1:35.90 with Smed second in 1:36.02. Staples finished 19th with Caitlin Ciccone (Bethlehem, NH) 25th.
Duke, 22 and in her first year on the U.S. Ski Team, began her podiums run Jan. 1 in Melchsee-Frutt, Switzerland, when she was third. She came up through Idaho's McCall Ski Team and Park City Ski Team programs.
"Hailey's turned it on this year," said Women's SL/GS Head Coach Chris Knight. "We wanted her to have success at the Europa Cup level and she's certainly doing what we asked."
|