Gairns qualified fifth Wednesday and was doing well in her quarterfinal heat Saturday ranked second out of four in the race heading into the homestretch for the finish when she made a costly mistake. She came up short in one of the final step-up jumps and hit the knuckle of the hill which dropped her into third place. Only the top two advance and Gairns ended up fourth in her heat. Sandra Naeslund of Sweden used her home course advantage to win gold, edging Fanny Smith of Switzerland and Alizee Baron of France in Saturday’s Big Final. In the men’s race, Alex Fiva of Switzerland topped the podium, with Francois Place of France winning silver and Erik Mobaerg of Sweden ending in bronze position.
IDRE FJÄLL, SWEDEN — Another day, another World Cup ski cross gold medal for Canadian Reece Howden. The native of Cultus Lake captured a second straight World Cup event Sunday and third of the . . .
It took a photo at the finish to determine it but Howden got to the line first, just ahead of Niklas Bachleitner of Germany, while Simone Deromedis of Italy edged Leharr for bronze. “The plan was to not come out in front, the draft was too strong,” Howden told Alpine Canada. I wanted to chill in the middle of the pack and give my legs a bit of a break and once I made that last turn fire up those engines and get out in front.” Today was a day of racing, not a day of leading, so I was super happy with my execution and it couldn t have gone any better.