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Alcock wins first career World Cup skeleton race on home track

CALGARY (CP) -- Lindsay Alcock of Calgary captured her first career World Cup skeleton race Friday, pumping her fists in the air after her sled crossed the finish line at Canada Olympic Park.

Alcock, 24, topped a deep Olympic field in a two-heat combined time of one minute 58.66 seconds, the only competitor to go under 59 seconds for a heat with 58.91 in the first run. World No. 1 Maya Pedersen of Switzerland was second in 1:58.86 while Alex Coomber of Britain was third in 1:59.30.

Salt Lake has suddenly become a reality after Alcock was simply hoping to compete this season. But third- and fourth-place finishes in the first two races of the season last month combined with Friday's win places her second overall in the World Cup standings, making her a serious medal threat for Salt Lake should she qualify for the Feb. 8-24 Games. "It's been a fast progression, I'll give you that," Alcock said. "I just put my mind to it. You just set yourself a goal and a dream and you try to attain it."

To qualify for the Games, Canadian team members must have four top-six finishes in the last two World Cup seasons heading into Salt Lake, one of which must be in the Olympic year. There are two World Cup races left for Alcock to earn an Olympic berth: next weekend in Lake Placid, N.Y., and Jan. 14-17 in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Michelle Kelly, was sixth Friday in 2:00.33, which was just good enough to qualify her for the Olympics. The 27-year-old veteran needed just the one top-six finish this season after posting four top-six placings last year. Melissa Hollingsworth placed 15th Friday in 2:01.47.

On the men's side, Duff Gibson had a career-best fourth place in 1:56.62. Jeff Pain , the top-ranked Canadian in the world, was eighth in 1:57.05. Both Gibson and Pain have already qualified for the Winter Olympics. Pascal Richard placed 20th in 1:58.13.

Canadians so close in Nordic World Cup Relay

DAVOS, SUI--The Canadian Women's nordic skiiing team proved over the weekend that their World Cup silver medal and best-ever Canadian relay World Championship results last year were no fluke. The team is on track for a best-ever Canadian Olympic showing in 2002.

Beckie Scott	The women's team made up of Beckie Scott, MilaineTheriault, Amanda Fortier and Sara Renner finished in seventh place in in a time of 57:20.1in World Cup relay competition on Sunday. They were closer in time to the winning Norwegian team than their best ever sixth place World Championships show last season. "We're getting close," said anchor Renner.	Milaine Theriault
Amanda Fortier	"We've got a home course advantage at the Olympics. If we can be close in Europe, we could do it in North America." The team, which was in third place at one point, was in a fighting position the entire race. Scott skied to fourth place in the opening leg, Theriault finished in fifth, Fortier moved the team into third place in the third leg of the relay, and Renner finished the day in seventh.	Sara Renner

Scott continued to lead her Canadian teammates through a strong pre-Christmas World Cup tour by finishing 13th on Saturday in the Women's 10km classic style race. "It went quite well today but I'm not 100% happy with the result," said Scott, who would have preferred to finish in the top ten. Scott was positioned in the top 10 for most of the race, but lost time in the last 2km of the race.

National Team Coach David Wood is pleased with the results. "The girls are skiing at a good level for this time of year. They are skiing better than they were this time last year."

Scott finished the race in a time of 31:15.6. Theriault was 44th in 32:29.9, Fortier 47th in 32:31.4, and Renner 49th in 32:37.7.

Fraser's Olympic bobsleigh dreams dashed

CALGARY, CAN--Canadian pilot Christine Fraser's Olympic dream came to an end Sunday after she failed to register a top-six finish to meet the Canadian qualification standards to compete in the 2002 Salt Lake Games.

With brakeman Paula McKenzie in the Canada 1 sled, she was 1/100th of a second behind sixth place at the end of the first heat. However, in the second heat she slipped back to finish ninth, 43/100ths of a second behind sixth place. A tearful Christina Smith, who finished sixth Sunday with brakeman Suzanne Gavine-Hlady (1:55.84), was overcome with emotion to know her long-time teammate would not be accompanying her to Salt Lake.

Fraser & McKenzie in action. Reuters-Patrick Price

"It hit me hard. It would have been great to have two Canadian sleds in Salt Lake, but that's sport, I guess."

Fraser said she tried not to put too much pressure on herself. "We had two good pushes. It was not a bad day at all. But what happens, happens." Brakeman Paula McKenzie added, "It's disappointing. We fought hard, but that's it." When asked if she would remain with the Canadian Bobsleigh Program to try for the 2006 Games, she replied " No, my body won't take it. I'm 34, and I want to walk when I'm 60."

Jeff Hugill, Managing Director of Bobsleigh CANADA Skeleton, said with respect to Fraser that the results of the year and other factors will be analyzed to see what recourse there may be to get her qualified. "The newness of the sport is one of those factors; yet we want to ensure we have a defensible position. We want to have a podium program. The athletes signed on to the COA qualification standards. But we will try to see what recourse may be open to us."

In early January, the brakemen of the Canadian Women's Bobsleigh Team will have a push competition to determine which athletes will push for Christina Smith at the Olympic Games. Fraser had finished 14th in Saturday's World Cup while Smith finished 9th.

Forsyth registers strong second run to finish fifth

VAL D'ISERE, FRA (AP) -- Allison Forsyth had the second-fastest second run to finish fifth in a women's World Cup giant slalom ski event Sunday.

Forsyth racing the GS. Reuters-Jack Dabaghian

Forsyth was ninth following the first run, but she moved up to fifth overall after posting a time of one minute 9.25 seconds in the second run. Forsyth's combined time was 2:24.84. Switzerland's Sonja Nef finished first with a time of 2:23.80. Nef was the only skier to post a better second-run effort than Forsyth (1:09.20). Sweden's Anja Paerson was second overall in 2:24.46, with Austrian Michaela Dorfmeister third in 2:24.63.

Forsyth finished 57th in the downhill event on Saturday, while Geneviève Simard, did not finish.

The Canadian Men's Alpine Ski Team saw improved performances Saturday in Val Gardena, Italy as Darin McBeath finished tied for 22nd and Edi Podivinsky was 28th. For McBeath, 25, the race result provided some assurance that he was on the right track. He finished the course in 2:02.93, 1.69 seconds off the pace, to record his first World Cup points of the season.

"That was a very important race and result for me," said McBeath. "Not so much because of the position but because of the time difference. It's the first time in a long time that I feel able again to be in control of my run and my skis, and to be aggressive."

Podivinsky clocked the course in 2:03.39 and finished 2.15 seconds back. The 31-year-old, who has experienced prior success in Val Gardena with two top-10's in 1999 (3rd and 10th), expressed he was pleased with his result but also stated he's looking to be better.

"Today was a step forward but I'm still not where I want to be with the potential I have," said Podivinsky. In Nor-AM competition, Canadian Alpine Ski Team member David Anderson posted his third Super-G win of the competition at Lake Louise. The 22-year-old, who also won the opening Super-G's on December 4 and 5, dashed to the finish in a time of 1:36.17. All in all, Anderson closed out the Lake Louise Nor-Am Cup with three wins, a 7th place (Dec 9 - DH) and a DSQ (DEC 10 - DH).

David Anderson

Lugers post strong results on Veissmann World Cup tour

OBERHOF, GER--Calgary's Tyler Seitz turned in Canada's best result at the fifth Viessmann World Cup luge competition in Oberhof, Germany, finishing 13th in a time of 1:30.388.

Seitz's team mates, Chris Moffat and Kyle Connelly finished 21st and 29th respectively.

In the women's event, Regan Lauscher finished 13th, 1.794 behind the powerful German and Austrian sliders. "I feel OK about the race today," said Regan. "Even though I hit one wall on my second run, I feel that I achieved the other goals I had set out after running into some trouble in my training runs."

In the doubles event, Eric Pothier and Chris Moffat ran into difficulty in their initial run, standing 16th at the end of the first heat. They fought back with a 6th place time in the second heat, finishing in 10th place over all. The other Canadian duo of Grant Albrecht and Mike Moffat finished 21st.

Chris Moffat had his best World Cup finish ever at the second day of the 4th Viessmann World Cup in Igls, Austria.

Moffat's 10th place time of 1:40.893, was just 0.826 seconds off the gold medal pace. Seitz and Connelly finished in 17th and 29th respectively. Jeff Christie was in 18th place after the first heat, but did not finish his second run.

Shewfelt impresses at Gymnastics World Cup

GLASGOW, SCO--Kyle Shewfelt posted two fourth place finishes at a World Cup gymnastics competition which featured a powerful field from 27 countries over the weekend.

On vault, Dimitri Karbanenko of France tied for first with Sapronenko at 9.475 followed by Ioan Suciu of Romania in third at 9.412 and Shewfelt, first in the preliminary round, fourth at 9.337.

Shewfelt, 19, is one of Canada's top young gymnasts. He was 12th on floor at the 2000 Olympics and won a bronze medal on floor at the Glasgow World Cup just prior to the Games.

Freestyle Skiing action

STEAMBOAT, Colorado - Jennifer Heil finished in a ninth-place tie in World Cup Freestyle Skiing moguls action over the weekend. Full results and photos from the competition are posted at www.freestyleski.com.

Meanwhile, many World Cup aerialists hit Fortress Mountain in Kananaskis for a NorAm competition. Jay Nachbaur broke into new territory with a victory Sunday. Blowing snow and high winds forced organizers to downgrade from two-jump finals to one-jump finals, as some world-class jumpers who had competed Friday or Saturday withdrew.

Americans Jeret Peterson (second) and Jeremy April took the lesser medals, while the next Canadian was Warren Shouldice of Calgary as one of four Canadians in the top 10. He placed fourth, while his placing on Saturday was ninth with a career-high score. Deidra Dionne of Red Deer was second on Friday, followed by a fourth-place showing Sunday.

Deidra Dionne

"It was more like a World Cup event," said Dionne, whose silver medal in Friday's final came while completing her triple-twisting double somersault. "It's only the seventh time I've ever done it and first in competition," she said after landing the jump, then touching her back on the snow briefly.

Biathletes strive to post Olympic Qualifying results

POKLJUKA, SLO--European junior champion Maryke Ciaramidaro of Canmore, the top Canadian last weekend with a 40th place finish, was 66th in the 15 kilometre event at a World Cup biathlon competition held here over the weekend, while Sandra Keith of Canmore was 77th. Neither advanced to the pursuit reserved for the top-60 in the 15 kilometre.

On the men's side, Robin Clegg finished 99th in Thursday's 20 kilometre race. He also didn't qualify for the pursuit on Sunday won by Raphael Poiree of France. The third stop on the World Cup is December 19-22 at Osrblie, Slovakia.

So far Canada has no qualifiers for the Olympics in biathlon. Martine Albert and Clegg have achieved the first leg of the Canadian Olympic Association criteria. The athletes will have more opportunities at the next two World Cups. The Canadian team will be announced January 11.

Sale, Pelletier win eighth straight

The pair perform 'Love Story'. CP-Frank Gunn

KITCHENER, CAN(CP) -- Jamie Sale and David Pelletier finally delivered the consummate performance of Love Story on Saturday to win the pairs competition at the $492,000 US International Skating Union's Grand Prix final. The win was the eighth straight in international competition for the Canadian duo. "We were very, very pleased with the way we felt. Personally, I think I was perfect," Sale said with a smile. The pair earned two perfect 6.0 for presentation and first-place ordinals from all seven judges.

Haley wins five gold at Cideli competition

MAR DEL PLATA, ARG--Andrew Haley won five gold and one silver at the 20-country 2001 Cideli competition for swimmers with a disability in Argentina over the weekend.

The competition features different finals for the different disabilities in each event. Canada, the number-one country in the world in the sport, finished the competition with a whopping 26 gold, eight silver and three bronze for the eight-member Canadian squad.