When the NorAms are in town, Panorama is more than just a view

Day three of the NorAm series in Panorama, British Columbia, picked up right where the first two left off, providing racing fans with ample excitement as the continent’s top talent battled it out in slalom and giant slalom against some top up-and-coming foreign talent.

The second men’s GS saw a surprise winner in Andorra’s Joan Verdu Sanchez. The virtual unknown junior, who’s previous best FIS GS result was a 20.84 from the previous day, took the victory with a total time of 2:23.68 seconds, scoring a 6.40-point result and besting Canadian national team member and University of Vermont student Morgan Megarry as well as Westminster College’s Giulio Bosca of Italy who tied for second, 0.62 seconds back.

For Megarry, who has been battling a string of knee problems over the past couple of seasons, the return to the NorAm podium is a welcome one, although he acknowledged that his health is not where he wants it to be just yet.

“I wish I could say the last year and a half flew by, but it felt like forever,” Megarry wrote on his Instagram account. “Thanks everyone for the support. The knee still has a ways to go, but it feels damn good to be back at it!”

On the first slalom day, a familiar face stood atop the podium, with the University of Denver’s Erik Read of Canada besting the field by a dominant margin of 1.80 seconds over American veteran Seppi Stiegler in second and Read’s DU teammate Taylor Shiffrin in third, a distant 2.67 seconds off the pace. The top junior on the day was Norwegian Jeppe Baardseth, who finished in 13th place.

For Read, slalom day two went much like the first, as he took his second win in a row and fourth of the series with a total time of 1:44.12 seconds. Canadian development team member Jack Crawford made an incredible leap from the 57th start position to finish runner-up, 0.41 seconds behind Read. Completing the Canadian sweep in third was Phil Brown, still on the comeback trail following hip surgery in the off season, 0.59 seconds back.

The final day of the series saw many impressive attack-from-the-back performances in addition to Crawford’s, with Great Britain and Team Global Racing’s Charlie Raposo jumping from 54th to fifth, as well as a huge move by U.S. Ski Team GS maestro Brennan Rubie jumping an unbelievable 115 spots to finish in sixth from the 121st start position.

Read holds a blistering lead in the overall NorAm standings with 531 points to Tyler Werry’s 282. He also leads the slalom standings 222-180 over Norway’s Espen Lysdahl. Tommy Ford holds the GS standings 200-182 over Read.

The men’s NorAm circuit next heads to Mont Sainte-Anne, Quebec, for a slalom and GS series Feb. 4-7 before heading down to the United States for the remainder of the season.

See full results from Panorama by clicking here.