Canada’s Sensational Sliders; Canadians earn two gold, a silver and a bronze.

The Calgary Herald - Canada’s skeleton team enjoyed a rip-roaring start to another World Cup season Thursday, marking two victories among four podium finishes. Team veterans Paul Boehm and Michelle Kelly won the men’s and women’s races, respectively, at Canada Olympic Park, while Mellisa Hollingsworth scooped a silver medal and Jon Montgomery a bronze.

Boehm, a 33-year-old Calgarian, celebrated his first triumph on the circuit despite anything but textbook starts in which he popped out of the starting grooves in both races. Montgomery made a couple of small errors entering and exiting the kriesel to fall to third place for the second straight year. Defending champion Jeff Pain of Calgary failed to make the team as he continues to make adjustments to his sled.

Boehm popped out of the right-hand starting groove and went sideways in his first run, then popped out of the left-hand groove only to slide across into the right-hand groove in his second start. Despite the circus, his start times were still top 10 each run. “I was fortunate in both races . . . historically, I’m known for popping out of the groove, doing it once a year so, hopefully, this is my once,” said a beaming Boehm, who had seriously considered retiring prior to this season. “I’d like to say there’s a special technique to it, but it’s something I’ve done so many times it’s just natural right now.

Kelly, 33, a former World Cup and world champion, also came from off the pace to overtake Hollingsworth for her first victory in Calgary. The win also erased a tear-filled 2006 outing when she was disqualified after leading the first run. Her sled had weighed in 200 grams more than the legal weight when it picked up snow and ice under the saddle.

“Driving here today, I said to myself, ‘well you had the worst thing that could happen to you last year, so there’s nowhere to go but up,’ “ smiled the native of Fort St. John, B.C., and resident of Calgary. “The first run wasn’t great . . . I really had to push myself because I knew Mel was ahead of me and was going to come on strong, so I knew I had to bring out my best to pull out the win and that’s what I did.”

Hollingsworth, back on track for the first time since the Olympic year, felt it all slip-sliding away in the second run as early as Turn 4. “The track conditions were tough. The ice was hard and if you’re moving around on your sled, you’re going to skid and that’s what happened to me,” said the 27-year-old Airdrie resident. “There’s lots to improve on, so it should be a good season.”

Upperton golden in bobsleigh world cup race.

CBC.CA News - Helen Upperton of Calgary and brakeman Jenny Ciochetti of Edmonton captured the first World Cup women’s bobsleigh event of the season Friday on their home track.

“The goal is to always push as good as you can and drive as well as you can, but you’ve got to try and keep building competitive equipment to keep up with the Germans and Americans,” said Upperton, who’s adjusting to a new sled. “The Canadian program is working really hard on that. It was time for a change, to push the envelope a bit and get up there on the podium.”

Canada’s second team of Kaillie Humphries of Calgary and Shelley-Ann Brown of Pickering, Ont., nearly cracked the World Cup podium, finishing 0.04 seconds out of third. Cruickshank and pilot Lisa Szabon placed 12th in Friday’s race.

Pierre Lueders collected a bronze medal Saturday night piloting the Canada 1 sled that was rounded by fellow Calgarians Lascelles Brown and David Bissett, along with Justin Kripps of Summerland, B.C., who won his first World Cup medal.

Reigning World Cup overall two-man champion Steve Holcomb of the U.S. won the race after finishing second in Friday’s two-man event. Germany’s Andre Lange, who won the two-man race, fell short in his bid to repeat as the four-man champ at Canada Olympic Park. Lueders finished a 10th of a second back of Lange.

The Canada 2 sled, piloted by Lyndon Rush of Sylvan Lake, Alta., and including Calgary’s Dan Humphries, Chris Le Bihan and Nathan Cross, crashed coming out of the eighth turn during their first run.

Canada’s Christine Nesbitt wins silver at speed skating World Cup.

Canadian Sport News/Nouvelles-sport canadien - KOLOMNA, Russia – Christine Nesbitt of London, Ont., showed she’s fast on European ice too on Sunday as she won the silver medal in the women’s 1,500-metres at the third stop on the long track speed skating World Cup circuit.

Three-time world champion Anni Friesinger of Germany took the gold in Nesbitt followed and Daniela Anschutz-Thoms of Germany was third.   Kristina Groves of Ottawa was fourth. ‘’I didn’t have a great start in today’s race but I made up a bit of time on the laps,’’ said Nesbitt.  ‘’I was technically strong particularly over the last two laps.  The ice here was very hard and because of my technique I was able to hold my race together.’’

Nesbitt won the opening two 1,500 races at the North American World Cup stops in Salt Lake City and Calgary last month.  She leads the World Cup standings with 280 points. Groves is second with 210, while Friesinger moved up three places to third at 180.

Cindy Klassen of Winnipeg was paired with Friesinger in the third to last pair of the day.  Klassen was disqualified for hindering the German on the last crossover. Brittany Schussler of Winnipeg was 12th.  In the B Group, Nicole Garrido of Edmonton was seventh.

In what she described as her most important 5,000 race since winning the Olympic title in February 2006, Clara Hughes of Winnipeg took the silver medal on Saturday. The race was touted as a showdown between world champion Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic and Hughes.

“It was a really good race and technically it was the best I skated in a long time,” said Hughes, who worked on her speed last season by focusing on the shorter distances. “I felt I had some easy speed, I was calm and every push I made counted. It was an efficient race and I wasn’t that tired at the end.”

Kristina Groves of Ottawa, paired with Hughes, was fifth and Cindy Klassen of Winnipeg was sixth.

Erben Wennemars of the Netherlands won the men’s 1,500. Steven Elm of Red Deer, Alta., was the top Canadian in 13th place and Jeff Kitura of Langley, B.C., was 18th. Lucas Makowsky and Justin Warsylewicz, both of Regina, were second and fourth respectively in the B Group race.

“This is a beautiful rink,” said Hughes. “It’s unlike any other oval I’ve ever been in. I have to tip my hat off to the organizers who did a great job getting this event together here at the last minute.”

BRITT JANYK ON THE PODIUM AT BOMBARDIER LAKE LOUISE DOWNHILL.

Lake Louise, AB – Britt Janyk (Whistler, BC) stepped on a World Cup podium for the first time in her career today and became the first Canadian woman ever to do so in the history of the Bombardier Winterstart Downhill.

Janyk’s thrilled a boisterous crowd at the Lake Louise Mountain resort by finishing in third place. “It feels so great, I was thinking last night how different it is this year compared to last year in terms of my headspace,” said Janyk, the 2006 Pontiac GMC Canadian Downhill champion. “I’m ranked in the Top 30 in Downhill and Super G this year and I just have so much confidence going into today. I knew that I just had to trust how I’ve been skiing and the results will come.”

“I knew that I had a good chance to put something down today but I really just wanted to have fun with it and relax. I know this course and I had to leave the start gate and trust it and it was just so great to see 3rd place as I crossed the finish line,” Janyk added.

American Lindsey Vonn (formerly Kildow) captured her second consecutive DH victory at Lake Louise Winterstart. Renate Goetchl of Austria was second. Janyk posted the 8th fastest speed in today’s Downhill the radar, topping the radar with a speed of 122 kph, averaging 92.1 kph throughout the entire course.
Janyk performance represents Canada’s second podium of the current season after Jan Hudec won the same Men’s Bombardier Winterstart Downhill last week.

Emily Brydon (Fernie, BC) finished in 16th with a time of 1:51.10s while teammates Kelly VanderBeek (Kitchener, ON) and Sherry Lawrence (Calgary, AB) placed 22nd and 43rd respectively. Danielle Poleschuk (Calgary, AB) did not finish the race.

There were two Canadians in the Top 10 at today’s World Cup Giant Slalom in Beaver Creek, USA as John Kucera (Calgary, AB) finished sixth and François Bourque (New Richmond, QC) grabbed ninth place.

“I was two tenths from winning the whole thing, and just one tenth to the podium. I am so pumped about the race. It was really good,” said Kucera “Although there was lots of snow, the track was awesome. I was really strong on that first run and followed it up with good second run.”

“It is a superb team result today, and an excellent season start so far for the men’s team,” said national Men’s team head speed discipline coach Lionel Finance. “John had his second best result ever in GS today. He came back strongly in the second run aside from a few small mistakes. He now has three Top 10 results in three different disciplines this season, which shows immense maturity.”

Brandon O’Neill wins silver medal at Olympic test event in gymnastics.

Canadian Sport News - Brandon O’Neill of Edmonton earned a silver medal in the floor exercise final Saturday at the Good Luck Beijing International Invitational Tournament gymnastics competition.

He scored the highest score of 15.800 points along with Japan’s Makoto Okiguchi, but with Olympic tie-break rules in effect at this test event, the gold went to Okiguchi. The tie was broken by ranking the execution component of their scores – 9.500 to 9.300. Fabian Hambuechen of Germany was a close third with 15.750 points.

“It was probably one of my best performances ever on floor outside of Canada”, said O’Neill, the 2005 world silver medalist on floor. “It felt good out there today. If I had been more careful and avoided the small mistakes, I probably would have made even 16 points and gotten the gold medal. I am still happy to be second. Okiguchi made no mistakes, so he deserved to win. For next year, I hope to add a double-twisting double layout (back somersault) to increase my difficulty level.”

Ties are not broken in usual international gymnastics competitions. The rule is in effect for the Olympic Games to crown a decisive champion.

CANADA’S DEVON KERSHAW FIGHTS HIS WAY INTO ELITE COMPANY AT CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING WORLD CUP IN FINLAND.

KUUSAMO, FIN—Devon Kershaw hit the start line hungry for a strong result, and ready to fight his way to the top of the pack in the men’s 15-kilometre classic World Cup cross-country ski race in Kuusamo, Finland on Sunday.

The 24-year-old Sudbury, Ont. native, who was disappointed with his result in Saturday’s sprint race, rebounded to finish 16th. “Devon went out to fight today and he raced to win,” said Dave Wood, head coach of the Canadian Cross-Country Ski Team. “His performance was light-years better than yesterday so it was good to see him go out there and show he had something to prove.”

Kershaw, who is developing into one of the strongest male skiers Canada has suited up in more than a decade on the World Cup, was in tight with the frontrunners over the first 10 kilometres, but fell behind on the final lap to settle for 16th spot in a tight race loaded with best cross-country skiers in the world.

“Devon’s speed was good and he was able to maintain it until near the end,” said Wood. “It shows he has enough speed and is fast enough. We just have to do a bit more work so that in the future he can carry it to the finish.”

Canada suited up two other athletes in the men’s race on Sunday. George Grey, of Rossland, B.C., finished 50th, while Drew Goldsack, of Red Deer, Alta., was 54th.

Chandra Crawford, of Canmore, Alta., was the lone Canuck in the women’s 10-kilometre classic. The Olympic gold medallist in the skate-sprint finished 64th.

SANDRA KEITH SPRINTS OUT OF THE DARK TO QUALIFY FOR SUNDAY PURSUIT AT WORLD CUP SEASON OPENER IN FINLAND.

KONTIOLAHTI, FIN–Canada’s Sandra Keith followed the little light left on a dark afternoon in northern Finland to qualify for the women’s World Cup biathlon pursuit race on Sunday afternoon in Kontiolahti, Finland.

The 27-year-old Calgary native, who was the lone Canuck to qualify for the pursuit event, in 41st spot of the women’s 7.5-kilometre sprint race. The top 60 advance into the pursuit event, which wraps up the opening week of World Cup biathlon action.

“It is really different racing up here because it was light when we started but nearly dark by 3:30 p.m. I have never seen a biathlon race so tight with the top-60 athletes all within two minutes of the leader,” said Keith, who has been slugging it out with the world’s best biathletes over the last seven years, edging closer to her goal of consistently placing in the top-30 this year. “This is a very solid result for me. I really need to start having more races like today. This gives me confidence and I’m happy to have a spot in Sunday’s pursuit.”

Keith took advantage of calm winds and ideal shooting conditions, missing only one shot in the range during her set of standing shots. The sprint event consists of athletes skiing a 2.5-kilometre loop three times. Athletes enter the shooting range for one set of shots prone and the other standing between each loop.

Meanwhile, the remainder of Canada’s top biathletes were battling it out over in Torsby, Sweden on Saturday in a European Cup pursuit race. Edmonton’s Jaime Robb led the way for the Canadian men finishing 38th in the 12.5-kilometre pursuit after crossing the line 5:19.3 behind the leader. Calgary’s Nathan Smith finished in 44th spot. Russia’s Andrei Prokunin took home the gold medal with a time of 33:26.9.

Made-in-Canada bobsleds top secret.

Brantford Expositor (ON) - It’s dangerous to try and find out about made-in-Canada bobsleds. “I can tell you, but I’d have to kill you,” said Nick Ward, Bobsleigh Canada’s high-performance director. “We don’t want other nations to know what we’re doing.”

Bobsleigh has strong parallels with Formula One or NASCAR in that developing superior technology is part of the racing sport culture. You don’t want your competition to know what you’ve got up your sleeve, but you’d also like to know what the enemy has under the hood. There’s a bit of espionage involved in sliding sports in the competition to build the fastest sled.

But Ward can confirm, without murder, that Canada’s bobsleigh and skeleton teams have a program of building their own sleds for the first time. “As one of the leading nations in the world in the sport, we’ve been at the whim of other manufacturers who don’t have Canada at heart,” he said. “We do have the expertise in Canada. “The made-in-Canada program isn’t to say everyone involved is Canadian, but that information stays in Canada.”

The project will remain undercover and away from the prying eyes of other countries for now. The Canadian-made sleds won’t be rolled out until the 2009-10 season, according to Ward.

So there won’t be a sneak peek at the Viessman FIBT Bobsleigh and Skeleton World Cup starting today at Canada Olympic Park. “We’re certainly not going to unveil new sleds at a World Cup in Calgary,” pilot Pierre Lueders said. “That would be a mistake.”

The Canadian-made sleds are funded by Own The Podium under its Top Secret program. OTP is a $110-million, five-year business plan designed to help Canada win more medals than any other country at the 2010 Winter Olympic in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C. The Top Secret component is research and development in sport science. OTP will spend about $3 million of its $23-million budget in 2007-08 on Top Secret. About $1 million has been funnelled over the last three years into the made- in-Canada sleds, Ward said.

Lueders, an Olympic, world and World Cup champion in bobsleigh, used to tinker with and modify his sleds on his own. In terms of an actual program that will benefit not only myself but the other men’s and women’s teams, there hadn’t been a concerted effort under one umbrella,” he said. “So that is definitely something that’s new.

“There’s no denying we’ve got sled programs and projects for the hull, the frame, runners, better push technique, better training techniques. You try to optimize everything, whether it’s the athlete at the start and even the push bars that they’re pushing on.

“There are all these little projects within the project that might not necessarily be a Top Secret thing, but they’re things we can look at now in a much shorter time frame because the funds are there.”

Canada is just catching up to the world’s best in the sport when it comes to sled development. “One of the key things to understand is that the U.S. and Germany have been at this 10 years or longer,” Ward said. “They’ve been doing this for a long time with bigger investment.”

The reason you don’t see freakish sleds that look like spaceships on the track is because the world governing body of the sport, FIBT, has restrictive rules on the dimensions of the sled and the makeup of runners.

Lueders aims to eliminate the two-tenths of second that kept him off the podium in four-man bobsleigh at the 2006 Olympics. He and brakeman Lascelles Brown won silver in the two-man event.

Good Coaching Nurtures Optimal Growth and Development of Children and Youth.

Oshawa (Ontario), November 28, 2007 –According to research highlights by the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC), good coaching nurtures optimal growth and development of children and fosters the joy of sports.  To develop our coaches in Canada, General Motors of Canada and the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC) provided 60 $2,000 grants for coach skill development.

“Olympic dreams begin at the community club level and that is what GM’s Making Dreams Possible Program is all about” said Marc Comeau, GM of Canada’s vice-president of sales, service, and marketing.  “With support from the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC), these grants were designed to invest in coaches in communities across Canada.  We believe that ongoing coach development at the grass roots level is the cornerstone to building our elite athletes of the future.”

“The CAC is pleased to be partners with GM through the Making Dreams Possible Program. In its first year, the program’s direct support of coach development touched over 5,000 coaches and nearly 70,000 athletes in 115 community clubs across the country.  This program immediately impacts coach development and education and will ultimately benefit Canadian sport as more coaches are introduced to the National Coach Certification Program (NCCP),” commented Jean-Marie De Koninck, Chair, CAC Board of Directors.

Applications can be submitted by high performance athletes and their coaches for the elite grants and head coaches, technical directors or the president of local sports clubs can apply for the local sport club coaching awards.  Application forms can be found through www.thedriveison.ca.

Vancouver 2010 mascots introduced to the world.

Vancouver, BC – Months of mystery and anticipation finally ended today as hundreds of local schoolchildren were the first to personally meet Miga, Quatchi and Sumi, the mascots for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Many more children around the globe had a virtual introduction to these friendly figures on a new mascot microsite at www.vancouver2010.com.

Designed by the Vancouver-based company Meomi Design, Miga, Quatchi and Sumi were inspired by Aboriginal mythological creatures and also strongly influenced by popular culture, modern animation styles, the Olympic and Paralympic Movements, the culture and wildlife of British Columbia and Canada, and the artists’ own imagination. Each of the creatures is unique, both in personality and physical appearance.

Miga is a snowboarding sea bear inspired by the legends of the Pacific Northwest First Nations – tales of orca whales that transform into bears when they arrive on land. Part Spirit Bear, a rare white bear unique to BC, Miga’s outgoing spirit and high energy draw her to action and adventure.

Quatchi, a shy and gentle giant, is a sasquatch – a popular figure in local Aboriginal legends of the Pacific West Coast. Quatchi reminds us of the mystery and wonder associated with the great Canadian wilderness. Although Quatchi loves all winter sports, he’s especially fond of hockey and dreams of becoming a world-famous goalie.

Sumi is an animal spirit who wears the hat of the orca whale, flies with the wings of the mighty thunderbird and runs on the furry legs of the black bear. With a name that is derived from the Salish word ‘sumesh,’ meaning ‘guardian spirit,’ Sumi is passionate about the environment and is a fan of all Paralympic sports.

People across Canada and around the world are meeting the mascots on a specially designed mascot ‘microsite’ at www.vancouver2010.com. The microsite includes exciting child-friendly features such as an animated mascot video, character profiles, an online game, a mascot-related personality quiz, interactive e-cards, colouring pages and more.