Collingwood (ON), Canada – Canadian Chris Del Bosco gave the crowd at Blue Mountain, Ontario, plenty to cheer about when he won the men’s final at the ski cross World Cup event held there on Friday.nDel Bosco, of Sudbury, Ontario, followed up his victory at the World Championships held at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah, last week by staying cool on a technical course to record his second consecutive win. Overall World Cup leader Andreas Matt, of Austria, was second at the Rockstar Ski Cross Grand Prix event, and Tomas Kraus, of the Czech Republic, was third. Local favorite Nik Zoricic, of Toronto, Ontario, won the small final to take fifth place overall after battling his his way through to the semi-final before losing to Kraus and Del Bosco in the second semi-final.
“It feels pretty good. Hopefully I can keep it going,” said Del Bosco. “My first start of the day was pretty horrible but from there on out, the starts got better.”
Del Bosco found himself in fourth place in the first heat. Facing early elimination, he managed to claw his way into second place to ensure he advanced. In the final, he got out to an early lead and never looked in danger of relinquishing it.
“He was fired up today,” Canadian head coach Eric Archer said of Del Bosco. “He battled through the first run, going from fourth to second, and he just nailed it in the final.”
X Games champion John Teller, of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., finished 11th. In the first round of finals, Teller got off to a good start and won his heat, beating Del Bosco to advance to the quarterfinals, where Teller was in the backseat as he went off a jump, sending him into a near back flip and landing hard. The crash broke one of his bindings and bent his skis. Fortunately, he was uninjured.
“I did about half a back flip and landed on my head and bent a ski,” described Teller. “That was the end of the day for me.”
There was a scary moment for Canada at the quarter-final stage when Whistler, British Columbia’s Stan Rey lost control in the air on a jump and landed on his back. He was carried off the hill and taken to a hospital in Collingwood where he was diagnosed with a pelvic fracture. It’s too early to determine when he will return to competition.
“It was a tough day to stay focused with everything that was going on,” said Archer. “The course sped up. It was probably 20 to 30 per cent faster than yesterday. Everything became super short and super technical.”
On the women’s side, Germany’s Anna Woerner won the final, with Fanny Smith, of Switzerland coming second, and Jenny Owens of Australia third. The winning streak of World Champion Kelsey Serwa, of Kelowna, British Columbia, came to a crashing halt when she fell in the semifinal but also took the small final to finish fifth. She landed a jump early and appeared to have her skis taken out from behind in a collision with Sweden’s Anna Holmlund. She wasn’t seriously hurt and skied down the hill to the finish.
“I did all that I could do,” said a disappointed Serwa after the race. “I had a good opportunity to win. It’s kind of frustrating but that’s the way it goes. I did the best I could. At least I won the small final.”
Serwa picked up a minor elbow injury in the crash but will now have a few weeks to rest up and heal her back, which she injured en route to winning gold at the X Games.
“I’m going to rest and have physio four hours a day,” joked Serwa.
Skiers found a new venue as Blue Mountain completely revamped its skicross course for 2011. The resort increased the technicality of the course by adding quick jump sequences.
The next World Cup skicross race will be March 3 in Grindelwald, Germany.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
FIS World Cup
Blue Mountain, Canada – Feb 11, 2011
Skicross
Men
1. Chris Del Bosco, Canada
2. Andreas Matt, Austria
3. Tomas Kraus, Czech Republic
Women
1. Anna Woerner, Germany
2. Fanny Smith, Switzerland
3. Jenny Owens, Australia