Golden Guimond leads Canada to medal hat trick on slopes

SAALBACH, Austria – Alexis Guimond of Gatineau, Que., is in a groove this season as he collected his fourth World Cup victory winning the men’s standing super G on Friday at a Para alpine skiing World Cup

As was the case in his downhill victory (the first of his career internationally) on Wednesday, Guimond clipped multiple Paralympic Games and world champion Arthur Bauchet of France for his eighth podium. Three of Guimond’s four wins have been in the Super G.

The Canadian clocked 1:00.03 to 1:00.06 for the Frenchman. Aleksei Bugaev of Russia was third in 1:03.81.  There were 23 entries.

“It was a close battle, and it’s been like that for a few days now,’’ said the 26-year-old Guimond, a two-time Paralympian, to Sportcom. ‘’We love races like that, We’re all racers, and when the competition is fierce and tight, it creates a really positive environment.”

In the women’s standing Super G, Varvara Voronchikhina of Russia was the winner with Aurélie Richard of France second and Mollie Jepsen of West Vancouver third.

Jepsen, with six medals over the past two Paralympic Winter Games, has seven medals this season on the circuit with four silver and three bronze.

In the men’s sitting, Jeroen Kampschreur of the Netherlands took the gold with Takeshi Suzuki of Japan second and Kurt Oatway of Calgary third.

Oatway, the 2018 Paralympic Games champion, missed Beijing 2022 after he was injured in a crash a month before the Games.

Competition ends Saturday with another Super G.

World and Paralympic champion Tyler Turner starts season with silver

Paralympic champion Tyler Turner of Campbell River, B.C., opened his international season on Friday with the silver medal in the men’s banked slalom at the second stop on the Para snowboard World Cup cricuit.

Noah Elliott of the U.S. won the men’s Lower Limb 1 (LL1) final over Turner for the gold. Daichi Oguri of Japan took the bronze showdown over Yiyang Liu of China.

Turner is one of Canada’s top gold medal hopes for the upcoming winter Paralympics March 6-15 in Milano Cortina. He won Canada’s first ever gold in the sport in Beijing with a victory in the snowboard cross.

He hasn’t slowed down since. Turner has dominated his sport, winning three straight Crystal Globes and back-to-back world championship titles in snowboard cross since Beijing.

Chase Nicklin of Port Alberni, B.C., was 11^th on Friday

In the men’s LL2, Philippe Nadreau of Blainville, Que., was sixth.

Competition ends Saturday with another banked slalom event.