Despite of 8 inches of fresh snow overnight and a postponed race from yesterday, the men’s world junior downhill commenced on Friday at Panorama Resort in British Columbia. 

Giovanni Franzoni of Italy won the race with a total time of 1.25.56. This was Franzoni’s third junior world series and second gold after winning last year’s super-G in Bansko, Bulgaria. Now in his final year as a junior, Franzoni adds junior world downhill champion to his World Cup points and Europa Cup super-G title. 

In second place was Franjo Von Allmen of Switzerland, with 20-year old Luis Vogt of Germany finishing third. Von Allmen finished 0.24 seconds behind Franzoni. The top North American skiers were Raphael Lessard of Canada in sixth and U.S. Ski Team member Isaiah Nelson behind in seventh. 

“I had a good plan for my race run and skied on the attack, but made some mistakes that cost me a place on the podium,” said Lessard. “The conditions were pretty difficult to ski with changing snow down the course.” 

The overnight snowfall had athletes adapting their plan. 

“The course conditions were bumpier than the previous days because of the snowfall and having snowcats on the hill each night,” said Nelson. “Knowing it was going to be a little rougher, I made a pretty solid plan but it was just a little on the safe side. Nonetheless, getting a top 10 in downhill is a good start to my week and I am hoping to build on it the next several days.”

After the Jury inspection, Friday’s women’s super-G was canceled. All super-G women and those men who didn’t race in the downhill were given the opportunity to freeski the hill in the afternoon. The change in program will move the men’s and women’s super-G to Saturday along with the alpine combined and will count for the first run of the dual-run race.

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