Canadian Championships wrap up with slalom races

The 2017 Canadian National Championships continued in Mont Tremblant, Quebec on March 27-28. The men competed first, and despite drizzling rain, the course crew did a fantastic job in getting both slalom runs off and a Canadian National slalom champion was named.

American athletes took the first and second-place spots. The U.S. Ski Team’s AJ Ginnis, who won the U.S. National slalom title a day earlier, took the Canadian Champion slalom title with a time of 2:05.52 and his teammate Michael Ankeny finished in second place with a time of 2:06.16.

Toronto’s Phil Brown nailed his first run, putting up the fastest time. Brown went into the second run with a 0.45 second lead. However, a costly mistake on the first pitch took away his speed and he was bumped into third place. Brown had the best Canadian time of the day, 0.85 seconds off the leading time.

2X Northern American Slalom Champ to cap off the season! Couldn’t have asked for much more. Big thanks to my family, coaches, teammates and friends for all of their support this year! Now it’s time to relax #forwardski #oneteam #funfirst ?: Reese Brown

A post shared by AJ Ginnis (@aj_ginnis) on Mar 28, 2017 at 12:51pm PDT

The next day, members of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team swept the ladies’ slalom podium. Erin Mielzynski was crowned this year’s Canadian Champion in slalom with a time of 2:07.39. Mielzynski went into the second run with a lead of 0.47 seconds, and she put down the second-fastest second run to hang onto to a first place finish. Mielzynski last won the slalom National Championship race in 2015.

“It feels really good to be national champion and last time I won, Mitch [Marie-Michéle Gagnon] wasn’t there so I didn’t feel it counted as much since she’s such a great skier,” said Mielzynski. “Today was a day to really fight. It was a long, hard course. It was a frustrating season for me and today was a nice highlight. I’m excited to make a lot of changes next year in my skiing. Until then, I’m heading to Whistler to ski for some fun and then I’m taking a vacation!”

The defending slalom champion, Marie Michèle Gagnon, finished the race in second place. Making up time on her second run, she ended up 0.73 seconds back from Mielzynski.

Laurence St. Germain joined her teammates on the championship podium finishing in third place, 1.14 seconds back from the lead-time.

Complete men’s results are available here.
Complete women’s results are available here.