Eric Guay gives Canada back-to-back downhill world titles

By John Bagratuni Feb 12, 2011, 17:17 GMT

   Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany - Eric Guay of Canada took his love affair with Garmisch-Partenkirchen to a new high on Saturday when he won world championship gold in the blue riband men's downhill ski race.

   Guay, 29, claimed his first major title ahead of pre-race favourites Didier Cuche and Christof Innerhofer on the Kandahar piste where he won two his three World Cup races.

   'Garmisch has always been very good for me. I just always feel comfortable here and on the hill. Garmisch wants me to go fast,' said Guay.

   Guay got his first World Cup victory in a 2007 Garmisch downhill and the so far last in a 2010 super-g which also gave him a first discipline World Cup trophy.

   Guay is the second Canadian in a row to get downhill gold, following the 2009 success of currently injured John Kucera.

   While not making the top 10 an in any World Cup downhill this season, Guay was by no means an outsider, having two fourth, two fifth, and two sixth-place finishes at previous big event races.

   Helped by an early bib number 10 in sunny and softer conditions than in the past days, Guay raced down the 3,300-metres course with a vertical drop of 920m in an unmatched 1 minute 58.41 seconds.

   Cuche missed a first big downhill gold again with 1:58.73, but his silver was the first Swiss medal at the championships after fourth-place finishes in the opening three events. Italy's Innerhofer added bronze to Wednesday's super-g gold in 1:59.17 minutes.

   'I could ski relaxed and easy. The pressure was on the others who had no medal. I had a great run and could also prove that I can be fast as well when there is no ice,' said Innerhofer.

   Innerhofer was the ninth of 54 registered starters while the Kitzbuehel and Chamonix downhill winner Cuche was not helped by bib 18 in his title bid.

   'I am overjoyed with a medal, it wasn't a given before the world championships and today in these conditions,' Cuche said. 'I expected Christof to do well - even more if the piste had been harder. And Eric was very strong here last year.'

   Guay freely admitted that the bib helped him a little on the course he walked from top to bottom three years ago after renovation for the worlds.

   'I was a little bit lucky to draw a good number. But you still have to execute,' he said.

   Cuche, 36, agreed: 'I am OK with Eric. The conditions don't matter, you still have to have a perfect run.'

   However, Cuche, who got his fifth big-event medal 13 years after his first, a super-g silver at the 1998 Olympics, said that the ruling body FIS must reconsider its bib policy in which the best season skiers on Saturday had numbers 16-22 which were bad under conditions.

   'You can't be fast all season long and then have a disadvantage. You have to think about it, it is better for the sport.'

   American contender Bode Miller had to settle for 15th with bib 22 and Austria failed for the fourth time in a row at a big event to medal in the showcase downhill.

   The last one was Michael Walchhofer with 2006 Olympics silver. The 35-year-old 2003 world champion competed in his last big race on Saturday before post-season retirement, finishing seventh.

   Another ex-champion, Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, was among several skiers who crashed in the finish area after crossing the line. He hit the air-fence hard and had to be led away by team members.

   Saturday's downhill had a long injury absentee list led by Kucera and Olympic champion Didier Defago of Switzerland. It also featured January crash victims Hans Grugger, Mario Scheiber and Georg Streitberger of Austria.

   Guay was almost also the last man standing for Canada Manuel Osborne-Paradis and Ryan Semple saw their season end in a Chamonix crashes last month.

   'Our team has many injuries. This title is also for all those who are recovering. They will all come back, that's what the Canadian Cowboys are known for,' said Guay.