St. Moritz - Arab Today
Canada's Erik Guay capped his return from potentially career-ending injury to claim a second world title when he surprised the field to win the men's super-G in St Moritz on Wednesday.
The 35-year-old, the 2011 world downhill champion in Garmisch, timed 1min 25.38sec down the 1.9km-long Corviglia course in overcast conditions.
Norway's Kjetil Jansrud, the reigning Olympic super-G gold medallist and winner of three super-Gs this season, claimed silver, at 0.45sec, with another Canadian, Manuel Osborne-Paradis, taking bronze on his 33rd birthday (+0.51sec).
"It's incredible," said Guay, who best mastered the flat light and at-times rolling course that saw a handful of favoured racers ski out including Olympic downhill champion Mathias Mayer, winner of the Kitzbuehel super-G.
Guay has notched up just five World Cup wins in his long career, the last coming in the Kvitfjell downhill in March 2014 before undergoing knee surgery that summer that almost saw him end his life as a ski racer.
"It's just the whole history with coming back from injuries... coming back here and forgetting about everything and enjoying it," said the Quebec native, who finished third in last season's World Cup downhill final in St Moritz.
"Happy as can be. It's incredible to be on the podium with Jansrud and Manny, two close friends."
Osborne-Paradis made the most of improving light from his start bib number of 26, describing his bronze medal as "the best birthday present".
"I made a big mistake in the middle of the course and I knew if I didn't ski the rest of it well that would be it," he said. "It's the beauty of racing."
Osborne-Paradis edged out a second "attacking Viking" in the shape of Aleksander Aamodt Kilde by three-hundredths of a second.
Source :AFP