Quebec’s Brittany Phelan scored the first triumph of her career in the ski cross World Cup during an event held Sunday in Reiteralm, Austria.
During the grand final, the 32-year-old athlete from Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts beat Frenchwoman Marielle Berger Sabbatel, ranked first seed in the competition. The Swiss Talina Gantenbein and Margaux Dumont — the other two participants in this grand final — failed to complete the event.
En route to the final stage of the competition, Phelan, seeded third, finished first in her quarter-final heat, then in her semi-final heat, each time ahead of Gantenbein.
For Phelan, it’s a 17e career World Cup podium, including eight silver medals. It is also his fifth podium of the season and his third in his last four World Cup competitions.
“It’s fantastic to finally win today, I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time,” said Phelan, according to an Alpine Canada press release.
” It was time. It’s my 17e podium in the World Cup and it was often joked that I was the bridesmaid who remains that forever. So crossing the finish line in first position and achieving victory is an incredible feeling! »
The event which was to take place on Saturday was canceled due to heavy snowfall. The track conditions were therefore altered, but that did not seem to bother the Quebecer.
“I love this course,” Phelan added. It was a little slower today with the fresh snow, but it’s great that we were able to hold on to the race. It’s a longer track with a lot of technical and tactical elements and I love putting the pieces together. »
The 100 points that accompanied this victory allowed Phelan to climb to third place in the general ranking of the discipline, with a total of 694 points. Phelan overtook her compatriot Hannah Schmidt, who was absent from the competition this weekend. Schmidt totals 663 points.
Canadian Marielle Thompson, who was eliminated in the quarter-final round, remained at the top of the general ranking with 832 points. However, Berger Sabbatel reduced the gap to just 22 points, with three events remaining in the season.
In the men’s category, Canadian Reece Howden retained first place in the general ranking despite his elimination at the end of the quarter-final round. Howden has 566 points, 18 more than Switzerland’s Alex Fiva.
His compatriots Gavin Rowell and Jared Schmidt were eliminated in the round of 16.
The Frenchman Youri Duplessis Kergomard emerged victorious from the competition.