Canadian ladies can't seem to be beaten at this year's North American Cup (NAC), as they've swept the monobob podium in Whistler for another consecutive day.
Erica Voss narrowly lost to countrywoman Bianca Ribi by one one-hundredth of a second on Friday, but took full control on Saturday. The Torontonian outclassed everybody in a golden time of one minute and 51.27 seconds.
Kristen Bujnowski (+0.52) found a measure of redemption with silver after being disqualified in yesterday's race, while Ribi (+0.62) did enough for bronze.
On the two-man side, it was veteran Taylor Austin and rookie Mark Zanette linking up for victory once more (1:45.40).
American Geoffrey Gadbois swapped brakemen from Collin Storms to Boone Niederhofer, but achieved the same second-place finish (+0.36). Jay Dearborn and Kenny M'Pindou earned their first podium of the week in third (+1.08), joining fellow Canucks Austin and Zanette in the limelight.
10 out of 12 medals have gone to Canada with two days of competition in the books. Not too shabby for the home team.
'Go back to the process and execute'
Putting herself into the lead after her first of two jaunts down track, Voss managed to close the show.
"My first run was probably the cleanest I've ever had in Whistler, to be quite honest," she admitted. "The second run was not quite as perfect, but still pretty good. I had a moment after the first one, being like: 'what if I mess up and lose?', but I really tried to go back to the process and execute…not letting fear creep in.
"Monobob didn't come as naturally to me as two-woman did. [The smaller sleds] are a little bit unruly because they're lighter and they like to dart around—so they're sometimes hard to control, particularly in Whistler."
While Voss' somewhat lighter frame requires her to work hard off the starting line in monobob, Bujnowski is one of the most explosive Canadian starters. Indeed, the London, Ont. native was the only woman to register a push time under 5.40 seconds (5.38 to be exact).
Despite her initial power, Bujnowski has historically laboured to navigate Earth's fastest ice at the Whistler Sliding Centre (WSC). She'd put herself into second place after one run on Friday, but was removed from contention after a false start on her next attempt.
"That was a pretty tough blow, especially [since] I was having a good race too," Bujnowski said. "I don't know that I really shook it off. I'm still kind of frustrated about it, but I really wanted to do the best I could today. [My teammates] are all really talented athletes, and it's a great atmosphere to learn and train around them."
Voss concurs: "We're all supporting each other between heats. If someone has questions, all of us are happy to answer and help. We all want to be at our best, and we all want to win at our best. It's super exciting to stand on the podium with those girls and know that we're working together to get there."
After the event, Morgan Ramsay (who did not race) was awarded Team Canada's in-house Spirit Award for being an exemplary teammate.
'A really good head space'
Austin and Zanette prevailed in yesterday's contest by nearly three-tenths of a second, but they didn't feel it was their best outing—in part since Zanette had only a few minutes to warm up after Shane Ohrt rolled his ankle. In comparison, they're happier with what transpired today.
"It was a good day," said Austin. "I took what I learned yesterday and tried to apply it, being a little more present, [taking it] one corner at a time a little more. I think Mark did well too. He knew he was racing today and that allowed him to get in his groove."
Ohrt and his compatriot Chris Ashley are both nursing injuries that put their status for Monday's four-man competition into doubt. Austin knows that more short-notice personnel changes might be necessary, but won't dwell on the issue.
Dearborn, similar to Bujnowski, was attempting to wash a sour taste out of his mouth. He and M'Pindou dropped from third to sixth after their second run on Day 1, but cleaned up several of those errors to grab bronze this time.
"[Our medal] was the result of putting together two good runs—something I struggled with in our first race," Dearborn said. "Yesterday's done and over with. I took some time last night to be upset about it, then reset and moved on. I acknowledged that there were going to be more little mistakes along the way [and resolved to] fix them as they came. That put me in a really good head space."
When asked about M'Pindou, Dearborn was effusive in his praise.
"Kenny is possibly the best, greatest guy on the team," he remarked. "He's a phenomenal pusher, which helps, but he's always smiling and always laughing. Us pilots slide day after day after day, and he's been really good at noticing when I talk about feeling burned out. I trust that Kenny's going to lead the team and take care of whatever needs to be done."
Circle back to the WSC on Monday, Nov. 25 for two-woman and four-man races beginning at 2 p.m.
