Sunday, Jan. 31, 2010
The men's giant slalom and the ladies super G on Sunday were the first competitions at the FIS Alpine Junior World Ski Championships 2010 in the Mont Blanc region of France. The men's race was held at Les Houches and the ladies competition in Megève. French skiers won both Junior Worlds openers.
On the men's side, two of the younger guys in the field, Mathieu Faivre of France and Stefan Luitz of Germany, surprised with impressive race performances to take first and second in the giant slalom on the piste La Verte at Les Houches. The French Faivre who just turned 18 in January, clinched gold .77 seconds ahead of the equally young German Luitz starting 41st and .96 seconds faster than Epsen Lysdahl of Norway.
The women's super G victory went to France's Marine Gauthier, the defending World Junior downhill gold medalist. She defeated teammate Jeromine Geroudet by eight hundredths winning her second title. Austrian Michelle Morik took bronze only .58 behind Gauthier's run time. It was a tight race in which the first seven ladies were all within seven tenths of a second - Lena Duerr (GER) was fourth, followed by Tamara Tippler (AUT) and Barbara Hoop (LIE). Jasmin Rothmund (SUI) came in seventh.
France's Faivre from the Isola 2000 ski resort was very pleased but also a little surprised by his victory. "I didn't expect to win. My goal was to be in the top 15 but it feels great to win the title on that very well-prepared course," he said after the race. Today's gold is Faivre's best result in the Junior Worlds so far. Last year in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER), he finished 32nd in giant slalom. He seems to excel racing in the Mont Blanc Region as he already won here both the giant slalom and slalom of the National Junior Championships a couple weeks ago. This season, he won three FIS races and has many top ten finishes. He has not yet been able to win any European Cup race.
Luitz, who is in the German armed forces sports assisted group, did not expect to place second on Sunday. "I just merely wanted to ski as well as I do in training and my goal was the top 30," the youngster said. "Being in 14th position after the first run, I did not think I would be able to finish on the podium but things worked out nicely for me today". Stefan Luitz has DNFed in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Junior Worlds last year and also at several other races this season. "I am definitely happy that I did not ski out today."
Epsen Lysdahl's goal was to land a top 3 place finish, which he achieved with two solid runs clocking the third fastest overall time. "Right now, giant slalom is my favourite discipline," he said joyfully after the race.
Medals Table after 1st Race Day and 2 events
| Position | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | TOTAL |
| 1 | FRA | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| 2 | GER | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 3 | AUT | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | NOR | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Next competitions
Feb. 1, 2010 - Men's super G, at 11:15 CET
Piste: Côte 2000 / Megève
Feb. 1, 2010 - Ladies night slalom, 1st run at 16:00 CET, 2nd run at 19:00 CET
Piste: Les Planards / Chamonix
Results
For complete results, visit: http://www.fisalpine.com/place/region-mont-blanc,27.html or http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/1228.html?event_id=27001&cal_suchsector=AL
For more information, visit: http://www.mondiauxskijunior2010.com/en/
