Aspen IPC World Cup: Stephens 1st, 3rd

U.S. disabled alpine athlete Laurie Stephens took two good steps toward a possible fourth consecutive World Cup overall title Wednesday, finishing first and third in two super G races to open the Challenge Aspen IPC (International Paralympic Committee) World Cup.
    Stephens’ time of 1 minute, .03 seconds in the morning race was good enough to defeat Austria’s Claudia Loesch for the top podium spot. In the afternoon event, Canada’s Kimberly Joines recorded a blistering run of 56.38 seconds, beating the field by better than five seconds.

ASPEN, Colorado — U.S. disabled alpine athlete Laurie Stephens took two good steps toward a possible fourth consecutive World Cup overall title Wednesday, finishing first and third in two super G races to open the Challenge Aspen IPC (International Paralympic Committee) World Cup.
    Stephens’ time of 1 minute, .03 seconds in the morning race was good enough to defeat Austria’s Claudia Loesch for the top podium spot. In the afternoon event, Canada’s Kimberly Joines recorded a blistering run of 56.38 seconds, beating the field by better than five seconds.
    The women’s standing division belonged to Canadian Lauren Woolstencroft on Wednesday. Woolstencroft won both races, with Germany’s Andrea Rothfuss finishing second both times. American Sandy Dukat put up a pair of seventh-place finishes on the day, while teammate Elitsa Storey finished sixth in the morning and eighth in the afternoon.
    Mono-skier Carl Burnett earned the only other U.S. top-10 finish on the day, grabbing 10th place in a closely contested afternoon race.
    All three men’s categories saw a sweep of the No. 1 spots Wednesday. Canada’s Christopher Williamson (with guide A.J. Brown) won both visually impaired races, Germany’s Martin Braxenthaler took both mono-ski events and Switzerland’s Thomas Pfyl won both standing races.
    U.S. head coach Ray Watkins said his team’s performance wasn’t as good as it could have been, but said he was optimistic about Thursday’s giant slalom.
    “We had some bright spots from people, in terms of what they were doing,” Watkins said. “Unfortunately they weren’t bright spots from top to bottom, and you need that to get on the podium. Results-wise, it wasn’t our best day. Tomorrow’s another day. I expect our top athletes to step up and perform now that they’ve had a chance to go at this hill.”
 

Challenge Aspen IPC World Cup
Aspen, Colo. — Jan. 17, 2007

Super G race 1
Women — mono-ski
1. Laurie Stephens, Wenham, Mass., 1:00.03
2. Claudia Loesch, Austria, 1:01.45
3. Kuniko Obinata, Japan, 1:14.81

Women – standing
1. Lauren Woolstencraft, Canada, 57.33
2. Andrea Rothfuss, Germany, 57.58
3. Theresa Kempfle, Germany, 1:00.51
–
6. Elitsa Storey, Ketchum, Idaho, 1:03.69
7. Sandy Dukat, Chicago, Ill., 1:03.73

Men — mono-ski
1. Martin Braxenthaler, Germany, 53.07
2. Shannon Dallas, Australia, 54.27
3. Klaus Salzmann, Austria, 54.69
–
11. Nick Catanzarite, Winter Park, Colo., 58.02
12. Gerald Hayden, Fresno, Calif., 58.53

Men — standing
1. Thomas Pfyl, Switzerland, 52.80
2. Gerd Schoenfelder, Germany, 53.60
3. Cameron Rahls-Rahbula, Australia, 53.97
–
13. Brad Washburn, Littleton, Colo., 57.30
15. George Sansonetis, Fraser, Colo., 59.88
16. Ralph Green, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1:00.57

Men — visually impaired
1. Christopher Williamson (Guide: A.J. Brown), Canada, 52.87
2. Jon Santacana (Guide: Miguel Galindo), Spain, 53.44
3. Nicola Berejny (Guide: Sophie Troc), France, 56.77

Super G race 2
Women — mono-ski
1. Kimberly Joines, Canada, 56.38
2. Kuniko Obinata, Japan, 1:01.62
3. Laurie Stephens, Wenham, Mass., 1:03.43

Women — standing
1. Lauren Woolstencraft, Canada, 56.34
2. Andrea Rothfuss, Germany, 57.25
3. Danja Haslacher, Austria, 58.81
–
6. Sandy Dukat, Chicago, Ill., 1:03.00
7. Elitsa Storey, Ketchum, Idaho, 1:03.29

Men — nono-ski
1. Martin Braxenthaler, Germany, 53.65
2. Shannon Dallas, Australia, 53.80
3. Takeshi Suzuki, Japan, 55.52
–
10. Carl Burnett, Winter Park, Colo., 57.49
11. Chris Devlin-Young, Campton, N.H., 57.58
14. Gerald Hayden, Fresno, Calif., 59.86
15. Nick Catanzarite, Winter Park, Colo., 1:00.47

Men — standing
1. Thomas Pfyl, Switzerland, 51.32
2. Gerd Schoenfelder, Germany, 52.75
3. Cameron Rahls-Rahbula, Australia, 52.97
–
12. Brad Washburn, Littleton, Colo., 55.97

Men — visually impaired
1. Christopher Williamson (Guide: A.J. Brown), Canada, 53.92
2. Gianmaria Dal Maistro (Guide: Tommaso Balasso), Italy – 54.06
3. Jon Santacana (Guide: Miguel Galindo), Spain, 55.26

Click here for complete results.