BC Ski Team's Brodie Seger of the Whistler Mountain Ski Club battled tough conditions on Whistler Mountain this week to come out on top after three days of racing at the 2012 Canadian J1 Championships, where the best 15 and 16 year old skiers from across Canada gathered to compete in super-G, giant slalom and slalom.
Seger, who is in his first season with the BC Ski Team, felt the pressure and the thrill racing on his home hill in front of family and friends. He did exactly what he needed to do, starting with winning the super-G on day one of the competition in one minute, 17.24 seconds.
“It was definitely not the best feeling run," said Seger after the super-G. "There were a couple of spots where it was kind of sketchy and I wasn’t sure if it was going to be fast or not, but lots of times in the past I’ve had people tell me that sometimes your craziest, most wild-feeling runs are the fastest, so I just kept pushing. As soon as I crossed the line and heard the announcer say ‘Brodie Seger moves into the lead’ I was so stoked, I couldn’t even believe it.”
Seger continued to ski consistently, taking 6th place in the giant slalom with a two-run time of 2:25.89 and winning the second run of the slalom securing a 4th place finish in that event with a combined time of 1:18.91, good enough to take the overall lead and earn the free round-trip flight to Amsterdam courtesy of event sponsor KLM.
“We’ve had a great week of racing even though there’s been some rough weather making the conditions tough on a couple of the days, but overall that’s what makes the races fun and challenging; not just a walk in the park," said Seger. "We had a beautiful day for super-G and I was happy to take the win. The GS day was very rough, you had to fight your way down and I came in 6th. In slalom I skied a little conservatively the first run and knew that I had to go all out second run, which I did and ended up winning the second run. That was very exciting because it was my first slalom run win in years. I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do in Amsterdam, but hopefully the ticket I won will come in handy one day soon.”
Adrienne Poitras (Mt. Tremblant) was the top overall female and Brodie Seger (WMSC/BCST) was the top overall male at the 2012 Canadian J1 Championships in Whistler.
They each go home with a free round-trip flight to Amsterdam courtesy of event sponsor KLM!
Overall standings
Men:
1. Brodie Seger – Whistler Mountain Ski Club / B.C. Ski Team
2. Patrick Carry – Fernie Alpine Ski Team
3. Karl Kuss – Toronto Ski Club at Blue Mountain / Ontario Ski Team
Ladies:
1. Adrienne Poitras – Club de ski Mont-Tremblant
2. Valerie Grenier – Club de ski Mont-Tremblant
3. Jenna McIntyre – Lake Louise Ski Club
Quote from Adrienne Poitras (Mont Tremblant) – top overall female:
“It’s been a really been a great week out here in Whistler. We had a little bit difficult conditions, but the whole race crew worked really hard to make sure the races could happen. Everybody here had a lot of fun. I’m really happy with my results this week, I had a 6th place in super-G, a 1st place in slalom and a second in GS – good enough to win the overall. Because of the tough conditions you really had to fight for it every run and I think our coaches really helped us to make sure we did that. Thank you very much to everybody who worked on the race, it was a great event and I’m hoping we can do it again next year.”