First Win for Jan Hudec

Dan Johnson 25.11.2007 10:57 Uhr

A day after clocking the fastest time in the last training run on Friday, Jan Hudec celebrated his maiden Ski World Cup win in Lake Louise after capturing the first downhill race of the season run on Saturday by difficult weather conditions.

Hudec, who started in fifth position, cruised down the “Olympic course” with great determination and skill to become the first Canadian to dominate the Lake Louise downhill. In 1989, Rob Boyd was the first Canadian to win a downhill on home soil at Whistler Mountain B.C. where the World Cup tour is returning next February.

Yet his first victory had appeared unlikely as he trailed through the first two intervals but his Rossignol skis helped him to find speed on the gliding bottom sections allowing him to beat by 24/100 USA’s Marco Sullivan while Austria’s promising Andreas Buder was 3rd at 34/100.

Both enjoyed their first career podiums in that race which finished in a very frustrating way for all the big guns whose runs were often slowed down by irregular gusts of wind. Last year’s winner Marco Buechel from Liechtenstein was a far 12th, Hermann Maier 16th and Bode Miller, a winner here in November 2004, only 20th. Ironically, Svindal and Cuche tied for 17th place with another leader, Erik Guay, 3rd in the downhill World Cup standings last winter.

Ivica Kostelic, the 2003 slalom World Champion, missed by only 7/100 his first points in downhill!

Hudec was confident
But it was a great day for Jan Hudec whose career was plagued by three major knee injuries that kept him away from the slopes for nearly three years. The 26-year-old champion endured an agonizing wait in the bitter cold as skier-after-skier, including downhill World Champion Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway or downhill World Cup champion Didier Cuche failed to push him out of top spot.

The skier from the “Canadian Cowboys”, encouraged by his entire family in Lake Louise including his wife and child, never reached a World Cup podium so far. He was 5th at Garmisch-Partenkirche, Bavaria, last season.

But he proved at last year's World Championships at Are that he is always ready for a huge surprise. In Sweden, he clinched Canada's only medal by winning silver in the downhill. “The World Championships, no one was expecting anything except maybe me,” Hudec told reporters.

“The difference here is having the fastest run in training puts the pressure on. I think that coming back after it and have the fastest run today is incredible, especially in front of my friends and family. This makes it really special and different from the World Championships. You can’t dream of a better place to win your first World Cup race. It’s absolutely fantastic.”

“The waiting was tough but it's that much sweeter when you win. I have been dreaming of this for ever and I’m glad to have fought so hard during my difficult years,” added Hudec who moved to Canada in the mid 1980’s after escaping from Czechoslovakia with his parents when he was one year old. “I’m really lucky to have been able to grow up in this country and become a ski racer.”

Hudec claims the third consecutive Canadian podium in Lake Louise. A year ago, his friends Manuel Osborne-Paradis was 2nd in the downhill a day before John Kucera’s first triumph in Super-G. Last year, that young Canadian team amassed 12 world Cup podiums in total – it aims for 14 this winter!

Sweet revenge too for Sullivan
It was an emotional day too for Marco Sullivan whose career has also been stalled by a series of injuries. The American, 4th last season at Val Gardena, fought hard to return on the team last winter.

“This has been long overdue, I've battled through some stuff and I'm happy to be back on track,” he said afterwards. “There's definitely more to come.

“I have high expectations for this year and going home next week to Beaver Creek the U.S. team is really fired up.”

Andreas Buder was pleased to confirm his strong form after setting fast times already in training this week. His trainers expected him to excel here today after clocking very fast times also while training in Sunpeak, B.C. with his team earlier this month.

“I was hoping for a podium finish today, this means a lot to me,” said the 28-year-old who was 3rd in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 2006. “The conditions were fine for me, it was sunny and I could attack the course the way I wanted.”

The second best Austrian, Georg Streitberger, only came in 9th while Michael Walchhofer, a former winner here, was 14th.

In Sunday’s Super-G the “usual suspects” as Svindal, Miller, and Maier, who all have Lake Louise Super-G career victories, will be favourites for Sunday's Super G along Buechel, Cuche, Kucera or Italy’s Peter Fill. “We can only hope that the conditions will be fair,” said Cuche. “The weather was great during the entire week. It’s just too bad what happened today but one has to accept it and turn the page. I anyway didn’t ski so well.”