Arnaud Gaudet was the only Canadian to reach the slalom eliminatory table in parallel with the World Cup in Bannoïe, Sunday, in Russia, where he finished in 16e rank. Opposed to Austrian and eventual bronze medalist Arvid Auner, the Montcalm rider was 1.47 seconds behind, which ended his day.
Another Austrian, Andreas Prommegger, won the gold medal final against South Korean Sangho Lee.
Jasey-Jay Anderson of Lac-Supérieur stopped in the qualifying round with a 28e place, while Sébastien Beaulieu of Sherbrooke was disqualified.
“For real, I was hoping for better, but I’m still happy to have made the finals,” said Gaudet, who was fifth after the first descent of qualifying. He then slipped to 16e cumulative row of the two sleeves.
I was still disappointed, because I would have liked to qualify in the top 5.
Arnaud Gaudet
Costly mistakes in his duel against Auner made the difference, as he noted.
“It was a tough run. I left super fast and it was going really well. I made a little mistake entering the pitch and that’s where he took the lead. Then I caught him on three gates, but I made a small mistake and he resumed the lead. In the end, I made a bigger mistake on the flat, but it was already too late for me. It went or broke for me at the end and it broke. ”
The 21-year-old who placed 48e in the giant slalom in parallel on Saturday confessed to trying to convince himself that he could get some positive out of his day.
“In slalom I’m confident and I know I can be among the best. I just have to do it, ”added the young man, laughing.
My goal this season is to make the finals [tableau éliminatoire] to all the slaloms and maybe try to get a podium.
Arnaud Gaudet
His teammate Jasey-Jay Anderson has received good news. Thanks to its 28e instead, he made sure to participate in all the World Cups that will take place before the Olympics.
“It means that another ordinary result becomes a very good result. I had a good first descent [en qualifications] which was followed by a bad one. I didn’t make big mistakes, but I never found the sweet spot like in the first round ”, indicated the veteran who could live a seventh Olympic experience in Beijing next February.
“I am accumulating mileage in the World Cup and I have a few more days to make the required adjustments,” he concluded.
The athletes resume competition on Thursday, in Carezza, Italy.