Kucera claims maiden win
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ByEurosport
Published 26/11/2006 at 19:38 GMT
John Kucera took his first-ever World Cup victory, winning the opening super-G of the season on home snow at Lake Louise on Sunday. After skiing first in bib number one, the young Canadian national champion waited and watched anxiously as the world's top
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Kucera finished in a time of one minute and 29.70 seconds, beating 23-year-old Austrian Mario Schreiber by 0.06 seconds in temperatures that neared -30 degrees Celsius at the bottom of the hill.
Sweden's Patrik Jaerbyn rounded out the podium in third-place at 0.28 seconds behind the Canadian.
Kucera's previous best finish in the super-G was a 25th place at Kitzbuehel and his best ever finish before the victory was a 12th place at Wengen's combined in 2005.
The 22-year-old national champion in both the super-G and the giant slalom finished 14th in Saturday's downhill race.
Kucera was an unlikely man to make history having never even finished atop a World Cup podium, but did just that by becoming the first Canadian to win at Lake Louise and only the second to triumph on home snow.
"I always tell people if I could win any race my dream race would be to win one at home," the Calgary skier told reporters. "Because it's an amazing feeling to win in front of your friends and family and today that dream came true.
"It's a bit of a surreal experience but I'm living every minute of it."
Rob Boyd was the first Canadian to win a World Cup on home snow racing to downhill victory in 1989 at Whistler, British Columbia -- a venue for the 2010 Olympics.
Kucera's win capped a spectacular weekend for team Canada, who saw Manuel Osborne-Paradis place second in Saturday's downhill and Erik Guay take sixth in the super-G.
"It's amazing for our sport, we've had two guys on the podium in two days," said Kucera. "It shows our team is really strong and up and coming and we're going to be one of the top teams soon."
Two-time Olympic champion Hermann Maier, chasing his fourth super-G victory at Lake Louise, finished just off of the podium in fourth at 0.18 seconds behind Jaerbyn.
Follow full LIVE coverage of the men's contest from Beaver Creek this week on www.eurosport.com and Eurosport television.
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