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Canadian Alpine Ski Team's Christina Lustenberger of Invermere, BC left the rest of the field in her dust, winning both of Wednesday's giant slalom runs with a combined time of 2 minutes, 14.08 seconds and a healthy 1.18 second lead over second place finisher Keely Blair Kelleher of the USA. Lustenberger is thrilled with this result as it is her first race following an injury that kept her off the slopes for an entire year! In other words, this is Lusti “in second gear”, just warming up and getting back into the race environment. She's excited to be back and looks forward to more outstanding results as the season progresses!
BC Ski Team members Alison Leighton (Whistler) and Lindsay Kraft (Vernon) are also honing their Nor Am skills in the deep talent pool competing at Mont Ste. Anne.
Leighton put down an exciting first run, finishing 33rd after starting 60th and qualifying for a second run (top-60 at the Nor Am level). Second time down the course she charged even faster looking to improve her position, but unfortunately caught an edge near the bottom and ran off the track.
Kraft wore bib number 63 and had no trouble qualifying for a second, run sitting in the 39th spot after the first. She pulled off an impressive 26th place over-all finish for the day in a two-run time of 2:21.52.
Head Coach Nancy O'Neill had this to say about her athletes following Wednesday's race: “It's a huge accomplishment to cut your start number in half at a race of this caliber. There's a ton of talent here and the conditions are by no means easy. I'm really impressed with how these girls are racing