Canada’s Kurt Oatway wins silver at Para alpine worlds

Oatway missed the 2017 worlds due to injury
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SELLA NEVEA, Italy– Paralympic Games champion Kurt Oatway of Calgary raced to silver in the men’s sit skiing downhill on Wednesday at the 2019 IPC World Para alpine Skiing Championships.

The podium performance was a redemption of sorts for Oatway who broke his arm in training for the 2017 worlds.

“It was a little bit of redemption – satisfaction – coming back to world champs and getting a medal,” said Oatway, diagnosed with a spinal cord injury in September 2007 after a 12-metre fall. 

“I kind of played it safe in a few places, at the cost of a little bit of speed. There’s more time (to be shed) on the hill for sure for me, but second place is good – I want to try to take that confidence, and go forward tomorrow in the super-G.”

In the men’s standing event, Alexis Guimond of Gatineau, Que., finished seventh, while Braydon Luscombe of Duncan, B.C. was 10th.

“I had a good approach, I had a good line, but I caught an inside edge and really struggled to get back on the pace,” said Guimond. “That mistake cost me a really good run. After that, it was just about keeping up my speed and staying in the race.”

On the women’s side, Frédérique Turgeon of Candiac, Que., finished fourth in the standing race.

“I feel like my race went well today,’’ said Turgeon. ‘’There were some little mistakes at the top part of the course, and obviously I could have pushed a little more at the bottom. But it’s so close to the podium. I’m very happy with what I did,” 

The speed events are set to conclude on Thursday with the super-G followed by a slalom in the afternoon which, combined with the morning’s super-G run, will make up the super combined. 

All events are being live-streamed on the CPC Facebook Page, the CBC Gem app, with select races available at radio-canada.ca/sports