Canada Ski Cross Podium Results In Season Kick-Off Races

Canada Ski Cross has picked up right where they left off last season… on the World Cup podium! The team has closed out the first two races of the season with four podium finishes. The Cross Alps Tour began in Val Thorens, FRA where Chris Del Bosco (Montreal, Que.) was victorious and Kelsey Serway (Kelowna, B.C.) took third-place. The team then headed to Arosa, SUI for a sprint nighttime race on a 450 metre track where Kevin Drury (Toronto, Ont.) and Britt Phelan (Mont-Tremblant, Que.) took their career-first podiums! After just three heats in the 1/8 finals, heavy snowfall cancelled the race. Final results were concluded from the qualification times that ran earlier that day.

VAL THORENS, FRA

Del Bosco returned to World Cup circuit after recovering from knee surgery over the summer and clearly isn’t missing a beat in competition. Del Bosco smoothed out his runs following some training days to capture the first Canadian win of the season.

“I had couple mediocre training days,” to start off the season said Del Bosco. “I wasn’t really dialed in at first but then I cleaned things up for qualifications and once I was in the race it was a different ball game. I focused on the start and had some good heats. It was feeling right from the beginning.”

Serwa remains one of Canada’s most dominate ski cross athletes and started the 2017-18 season off on the right note in Val Thorens, FRA.

“The track was great,” said Serwa. “There was a lot of action in terms of passing. It was one of those courses where you didn’t necessarily want to be out front which makes for an exciting race. It was great to have eight Canadians in the big and small heats. We train together and we know we are tight in training but you never know how you will stack up with the rest of the world. It was cool to see we are doing the right things and continuing on the track to being the best team in the world.”

The first race of the season proved to be an awesome day for rookie athlete, India Sherret (Cranbrook, B.C.), achieving a personal-best eighth-place finish. Sherret won last year’s Nor-Am Cup circuit, earning her a starting spot in every World Cup race this season.

“I felt like I skied really well in the first race of the season,” said Sherret. “I stayed focused and really had an optimal performance. It’s super exciting to come from skiing at the Europa Cup level and winning the World Cup qualification, which was a pleasant surprise. It’s great to see how my work over the summer is paying off result wise.”

Brittany Phelan (Mont-Tremblant, Que.) and Georgia Simmerling (Vancouver, (B.C.) finished fourth and fifth respectively, giving Canada four spots in the top eight, proving Canada continues to be a podium threat in every race.

On the men’s side, Brady Leman (Calgary, Alta.) was taken out in an unfortunate battle, putting him into the small final where he finished in sixth-place. Kevin Drury (14th-place), Dave Duncan (16th-place), Ian Deans (21stplace) and Kevin MacDonald (30th-place) all made qualifications, earning a spot in the race giving the Canadian men six spots in the top 32. Mathieu Leduc and Kris Mahler missed out on a top 32 result in qualifications.

AROSA, SUI

Despite the cancelled races, it was a milestone day for both Drury and Phelan who captured their first career World Cup podiums, after putting down incredible qualification times. All results of the Arosa, SUI race were based on qualification times, proving once again, that Canada Ski Cross athlete’s can ski fast and technically well during all aspects of ski cross racing.

The Canadian men had five athletes in the top 20 with Drury taking second-place, Deans in fifth-place, Duncan in sixth-place, Leman in 11th-place and Mahler in 18th-place. Rounding out the Canadian men were Kevin MacDonald (27th), Del Bosco (33rd) and Leduc (36th).

On the ladies’ side, Simmerling missed out on a podium by just a couple tenths of a second, finishing in fourth-place. Serwa finished in 16th-place and Sherret was 19th.

Canada Ski Cross Val Thorens Results

Men

1 – Chris Del Bosco

6 – Brady Leman

14 – Kevin Drury

16 – Dave Duncan

21 – Ian Deans

30 – Kevin MacDonald

42 – Mathieu Leduc

55 – Kris Mahler

Ladies

3 – Kelsey Serwa