Alana Ramsay races to silver for Canada’s first medal at 2019 Para alpine Worlds

(photo: Luc Percival)

KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia – Alana Ramsay of Calgary won Canada’s first medal at the Para alpine skiing world championships on Tuesday with a silver in the women’s standing giant slalom.

Ramsay, a double bronze medallist at the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games last March, was third after her first run, then posted the second-fastest time on the next run to gain the second spot on the podium. 

Paralympic Games champion Marie Bochet of France showed she is still the one to catch in 2019. She dominated with a two-run time of two minutes and 09.42 seconds. Ramsay followed in 2:23.20 and Petra Smarzova of Slovakia was third at 2:28.52.

Ramsay, who was third in the same event at the 2017 Worlds, shed more than two seconds off her first-run time during her second pass down the course.

“The second run went much better,’’ said the 24-year-old Ramsay. ‘’I feel like I came out and I showed my skiing ability in that second run. To come back and show what I can do and what I’ve been training (for), it means a lot.”

Canadian NextGen athletes Mel Pemble of Victoria and Frédérique Turgeon of Candiac, Que., made their IPC World Para alpine Skiing Championships debut.

Pemble displayed consistency across both runs, finishing in fifth.  

Turgeon, a double World Cup winner last week, clocked the second fastest time at the first split on the opening run but could not finish. She was not discouraged in the least.

‘’I’m just so impressed with how much I’ve improved since March 2018,’’ she tweeted. ‘’I ended in 9th place in PyeongChang and now I’m ahead (in my interval) of a Paralympic medalist. I can’t believe this.”

“Four more races to go and GS is my least favourite … this is a great start to my first world champs.’’

Ramsay has watched Bochet dominate her class ever since she made her own international debut in skiing in the 2014-2015 season. However, the Canadian is confident that she can eventually knock the French ski queen from her throne. 

“It’s just a matter of time and consistency and training. That’s what it’s going to take,” Ramsay said. “To be No. 1, you’ve got to put in thousands of hours and she’s definitely up there somewhere. I just need to put in more hours to get there.”

Competition continues Wednesday with the men’s slalom events. The first run is at 4 a.m. (EST) and the second at 7:15 a.m.
 All events are being live-streamed on the CPC Facebook Page, the CBC Gem app, with select races available at radio-canada.ca/sports. 

(with files from Alpine Canada and IPC)