Para sport notebook: Jepsen and Guimond win bronze medals to open World Cup stop in Saalbach

SAALBACH, Austria – Mollie Jepsen and Alexis Guimond kicked-off a busy week for Canadian winter Para athletes on Tuesday with bronze medals in their respective downhills at the fourth stop on the Para alpine World Cup circuit.

With the Paralympic Winter Games set for March 6-15 in Milano Cortina, these World Cups are important forerunners for the biggest event of the year.

In the men’s standing downhill in Saalbach, Robin Cuche of Switzerland won the gold medal in 54 seconds flat. Arthur Bauchet of France was second in 54.88 and Guimond completed the 1,801 metre course in 55.56.

Aurélie Richard of France took the women’s standing downhill in 58.52 followed by Varvara Voronchikhina of Russia at 58.55 and Jepsen, of West Vancouver, third in 59.38.

Michaela Gosselin of Collingwood, Ont., was fifth.

Competition continues with a second downhill Wednesday and Super G races on Friday and Saturday.

Canada fields large team for Para cross country World Cup

Paralympic Games champions Mark Arendz and Natalie Wilkie headline a 14-member Canadian team for the second stop on the Para cross country skiing circuit in Finsterau, Germany this Wednesday to Sunday.

Competition gets underway Wednesday with the 10 kilometre, on Thursday it’s the 10 kilometre mass start, then on Saturday the sprints and on Sunday the relays.

At the season opening event in Canmore, Alta., last month, the Canadians won 12 medals with Wilkie, of Salmon Arm, B.C., and the visually impaired duo of Maddie Mullin of Fergus, Ont., and her guide Brooke Ailey of Thunder Bay, Ont., earning three silver apiece.

Also scheduled to race in Finsterau in the women’s standing with Wilkie are three-time Paralympian Brittany Hudak of Prince Albert, Sask., and Emma Archibald of Fall River, N.S.

Other Canadian women racers are sit-skiers Christina Picton of Fonthill, Ont., and Lyne-Marie Bilodeau of Sherbrooke, Que., as well as Mullin and Ailey.

On the men’s side, Mark Arendz of Hartsville, PEI, a 12-time Games medallist, competes in standing; Derek Zaplotinsky of Smokey Lake, Alta., and Leo Samarelli of Vancouver are in the sitting events while in the visually impaired races it’s Jesse Bachinsky of Kenora, Ont., and his guide Levi Nadlersmith of Thunder Bay as well as Logan Lariviere of Lively, Ont., and his guide Joe Hutton of North Bay, Ont.

Kuhtai, Austria hosts second Para snowboard World Cup

The Para snowboard World Cup season also resumes this week with banked slalom races on Friday and Saturday in Kuhtai, Austria.

Tyler Turner of Campbell River, B.C., the 2022 Paralympic Games champion in snowboard cross, Philippe Nadreau of Blainville, Que., and Chase Nicklin of Port Alberni, B.C., are the Canadian entries.