World Jr. Champs: Hirscher eases to SL gold, Phillips fifth

Feb 27, 2008

Marcel Hirscher is the junior world champion in slalom after winning the title race in Formigal, Spain, on Wednesday by nearly a second. Hirscher was 0.93 in front of the time of Italian Jacopo DiRonco and the silver medal. Japan's Tomoya Ishii and Norwegian Kristian Haug tied for the bronze medal. American Andrew Phillips was fifth.
    Hirscher, the defending GS gold medallist and silver medallist in slalom, is the current leader of the Europa Cup overall standings.
    Canadian Travis Dawson finished in 11th, with Nolan Kasper notching 15th place.


Marcel Hirscher is the junior world champion in slalom after winning the title race in Formigal, Spain, on Wednesday by nearly a second. Hirscher was 0.93 in front of the time of Italian Jacopo DiRonco and the silver medal. Japan's Tomoya Ishii and Norwegian Kristian Haug tied for the bronze medal. American Andrew Phillips was fifth.
    Hirscher, the defending GS gold medallist and silver medallist in slalom, is the current leader of the Europa Cup overall standings.
    Canadian Travis Dawson finished in 11th, with Nolan Kasper notching 15th place.
    "Right after the second run I was pretty bummed out," said Philips, a Park City skier, "I had put myself in position. I was definitely going for top three."
    Phillips said he'd seen Hirscher ski before, but got a new perspective today. "He's been on World Cup, he's definitely a quick skier," Phillips said of the Austrian. "I was in a Europa Cup with him and a bunch of the top juniors, so I had seen that pace. But I was starting like 63rd and he was third. When we started a little closer, now I know we can be on the same level."
    While Kasper finished 15th, he said he was ready to take the top guns on as well. "This was definitely satisfying," he said. "I took some great things out of this race. In the second run I was fourth and turned the day into a definite positive."
    The whole experience, with the possible exception of downhill training, has been fabulous the Vermont skier said.         "To see kids this young and that fast is an eye-opener, but we've seen this pace before. It's been a lot of fun being able to meet people from over 30 countries. We're so secluded in the U.S. We don't get to see the other cultures."
    "We're real proud of these guys today," said trip leader Walt Evans. "It was a very good slalom, the course was hard and salted and they all handled it really, really well. And," he added, "we're very excited about the super G tomorrow. We're after blood."
     Evans reports the warm weather in Spain has deteriorated the bottom third of the speed track and officials have moved the finish up the hill, which puts the course on the most demanding and technical part of the course, a move Evans said suits the U.S. team. In addition, the men's super G will be set by U.S. coach Randy Pelkey who has vowed to utilize as much terrain as possible.
    Hirscher said he was particularly happy with the slalom gold medal. "I won gold in the giant slalom last year so it is nice to win in slalom this time. The conditions were quite soft in the second run so it was challenging. I will, of course, go for the win in the giant slalom as well but it is always difficult to win, even if I were the favorite."
    Perhaps happiest of all the racers, however, was Ishii. "It is unbelievable to win the bronze. I wanted to be in top 10 today but did not think about winning a medal. Our team is small so it will be a great party tonight. I will race the giant slalom on Friday and next year I want to come back to the Junior Worlds to win another medal."

Rank Bib FIS Code Name Year Nation Run 1 Run 2 Total Time FIS Points
 1  3  53831 HIRSCHER Marcel  1989  AUT   44.16  45.52  1:29.68  9.13
 2  8  990128 DI RONCO Jacopo  1990  ITA   45.02  45.59  1:30.61  15.46
 3  16  303097 ISHII Tomoya  1989  JPN   45.13  45.70  1:30.83  16.95
 3  13  421750 HAUG Kristian  1988  NOR   45.32  45.51  1:30.83  16.95
 5  4  532554 PHILLIPS Andrew  1989  USA   45.05  45.86  1:30.91  17.50
 6  1  421860 NORDBOTTEN Jonathan  1989  NOR   44.66  46.61  1:31.27  19.95
 7  12  421871 SANDVIK Eian  1989  NOR   45.49  45.90  1:31.39  20.76
 8  37  194212 THOULE Nicolas  1990  FRA   46.14  45.59  1:31.73  23.07
 8  20  51395 DIGRUBER Marc  1988  AUT   46.09  45.64  1:31.73  23.07
 10  15  501324 OLSSON Matts  1988  SWE   45.64  46.16  1:31.80  23.55
 11  29  103313 DAWSON Travis  1988  CAN   46.19  45.64  1:31.83  23.75
 12  11  481006 ZUEV Stepan  1988  RUS   46.43  45.44  1:31.87  24.03
 13  30  294904 PANGRAZZI Paolo  1988  ITA   46.63  45.53  1:32.16  26.00
 14  31  193986 PLACE Francois  1989  FRA   46.94  45.32  1:32.26  26.68
 15  18  532138 KASPER Nolan  1989  USA   46.95  45.37  1:32.32  27.09
 16  47  501291 BAUMANN Thomas  1988  SWE   47.18  45.22  1:32.40  27.63
 17  6  561148 SKUBE Matic  1988  SLO   47.32  45.09  1:32.41  27.70
 18  32  531799 FORD Tommy  1989  USA   46.49  45.96  1:32.45  27.97
 19  35  561161 JAZBEC Patrick  1989  SLO   47.06  45.46  1:32.52  28.45
 20  26  511504 BONER Sandro  1988  SUI   46.01  46.67  1:32.68  29.54
 21  24  511529 GISIN Marc  1988  SUI   46.85  45.85  1:32.70  29.67
 22  41  294911 PATSCHEIDER Hagen  1988  ITA   46.88  45.97  1:32.85  30.69
 23  48  193879 CHAPUIS Jean-Frederic  1989  FRA   46.99  45.99  1:32.98  31.58
 24  42  60160 ALAERTS Kai  1989  BEL   47.13  45.94  1:33.07  32.19
 25  21  530874 GANONG Travis  1988  USA   46.94  46.31  1:33.25  33.41
 26  65  370022 JENOT Olivier  1988  MON   47.49  46.41  1:33.90  37.83
 27  59  200379 SANDER Andreas  1989  GER   48.30  46.70  1:35.00  45.32
 28  61  530925 HELDMAN Bump  1988  USA   48.46  46.78  1:35.24  46.95
 29  57  303315 FUSE Takashi  1990  JPN   47.83  47.44  1:35.27  47.15
 30  74  40395 GRIMUS Hannes  1989  AUS   48.36  46.92  1:35.28  47.22
 31  51  501557 PIETILAE HOLMNER Johan  1991  SWE   48.61  47.05  1:35.66  49.81
 32  55  430443 WADRZYK Maciej  1988  POL   48.12  47.58  1:35.70  50.08
 33  66  480989 SCHASTNIH Alexander  1988  RUS   49.08  46.92  1:36.00  52.12
 34  68  103617 ROUTHIER Mathieu  1990  CAN   49.45  46.60  1:36.05  52.46
 35  85  410302 WYLIE Andrew  1989  NZE   49.94  47.28  1:37.22  60.42
 36  83  550054 ZVEJNIEKS Kristaps  1992  LAT   49.21  48.26  1:37.47  62.12
 37  75  60179 CORNETTE Niels  1991  BEL   49.08  48.49  1:37.57  62.80
 38  86  150878 HOVORAK Martin  1990  CZE   50.21  48.78  1:38.99  72.46
 38  79  481199 DANILOCHKIN Yuri  1991  RUS   50.70  48.29  1:38.99  72.46
 40  71  194364 PINTURAULT Alexis  1991  FRA   47.23  53.39  1:40.62  83.54
 41  91  491405 URIETA Lorenzo  1990  SPA   50.25  50.61  1:40.86  85.18
 42  94  690086 FESHCHUK Rostyslav  1990  UKR   52.57  51.38  1:43.95  106.19
 43  90  550026 LANSMANIS Einars  1988  LAT   54.96  49.60  1:44.56  110.34
 44  97  240122 SZEPESI Bertold  1990  HUN   54.02  52.56  1:46.58  124.08
 45  98  110298 FAVA Franco  1992  CHI   54.70  53.18  1:47.88  132.93
 46  99  80062 SETUBAL Paulo E.  1988  BRA   55.40  53.47  1:48.87  139.66
 47  101  590033 MARQUES Joao-Miguel  1992  POR   1:13.04  1:10.88  2:23.92  378.07

 

Did not start 1st run : KOSIC Bojan (MNE), TORSTI Samu (FIN), SPECK Stefano (LUX), BYDLINSKI Maciej (POL), GRAF Bernhard (AUT), ANSTEIN Pirmin (ITA)
Did not finish 1st run : ANGUITA Rafael (CHI), GRIGORJEVS Jurgis (LAT), DANSSON Agust-Freyr (ISL), THORVALDSSON Jon-Vidar (ISL), JURICA Antonin (CZE), WILLEMSEN Victor (BEL), OLARU Bogdan (ROU), SIGURGEIRSSON Stefan Jon (ISL), BALDWIN Thomas (GBR), BULO Joel (SPA), WHELAN Peter-Edwin (GBR), MAITAKOV Sergei (RUS), WINSLOE Leighton (NZE), BERNDT Ondrej (CZE), KLINE Bostjan (SLO), HAMMER Maximilian (USA), GEIGER Christian (AUS), HARMANEN Niko (FIN), STANCEL Simon (SVK), MACKIE Michael (CAN), ERIKSSON Ricko (SWE), LINDH Kalle (SWE), COOK Dustin (CAN), SAXVALL Per (SWE), BORSOTTI Giovanni (ITA), SIEBER Bjoern (AUT), TONETTI Riccardo (ITA), SINGER Thomas (SUI), ROMAR Andreas (FIN), RIIS-JOHANNESSEN Jesper (NOR), CAVIEZEL Mauro (SUI)
Did not finish 2nd run : CUMANO Diogo (POR), CARRERAS POL (SPA), THEODORSEN Espen (NOR), MAYER Matthias (AUT), TAKAZAWA Shin (JPN), NELLA Tyler (CAN), DEBELJAK Jan (SLO), HERZOG Alexander (AUT), OHKOSHI Ryuunosuke (JPN)
Disqualified 1st run : LONGHI Jhonatan (BRA), IRWIN Geoffrey (CAN), FRAVI Jonas (SUI), JAQUET Yoan (SUI), KROGDAHL Torjus (NOR)
Disqualified 2nd run : VAN BUYNDER Frederik (BEL), HUTTUNEN Tuomas (FIN), BLANC Norman (FRA)


About the Author: Pete Rugh

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