Czechs take team event
The foursome of Lucie Hrstkova, Sarka Zahrobska, Ondrej Bank
and Krystof Kryzl win for the Czech Republic.
The World Cup didn’t officially close its doors on the 2009-10 season until
all the top nations pooled athletes together to accrue some final points for the
Nations Cup race in the coed team event on March 14.
It was the first time that the FIS ran the event in a parallel giant slalom format.
The U.S. team consisted of Ted Ligety, Jimmy Cochran, Stacey Cook and Sarah
Schleper, but was unfortunately eliminated in the first round.
Ousted by the Czech Republic, the U.S. was among several power teams not
advancing into the second round. Norway and the hosting German team both
were cast to the sidelines as well.
The Canadian team (Erik Guay, Manuel Osborne-Paradis, Britt Janyk and Brigitte
Acton) made it to the quarterfinals but was eliminated by Austria.
As it turned out, despite going in ranked lowest of nations competing, the
Czechs (Lucie Hrstkova, Sarka Zahrobska, Ondrej Bank and Krystof Kryzl) went
on to claim the event win, taking out Austria in the semifinals and Switzerland in
the finals.
Bank was undefeated as the Czech plowed through the field and his fastest time
broke the point scoring tie with Switzerland in the final match up. He won the prize
for fastest run while Switzerland’s Fabienne Suter was speediest on the women’s
side. She and teammate Nadia Styger accumulated the most points as the high-
est point tally for the men was scored by Bank and Croatia’s Natko Zrnic-Dim.
The final Nations Cup tally was Austria 9207, Switzerland 7363, Italy 5093,
France 4428 and USA 4131. — Shauna Farnell
