Rossland's Kim Joines wins IPC slalom in Italy...on her birthday

Kimberly Joines celebrated her birthday in style on Friday by winning the International Paralympic Committee World Cup slalom at Arta Terme, Italy.

This is the now 31-year-old’s second IPC World Cup win in three days since returning from a long-term injury.

“It’s my birthday, so that (podium) made me happy,” the native of Edmonton, Alta., said. “It was an interesting race, lots of people blowing out, so I was just happy to get down alive.”

Joines clocked a two-run combined time of 2 minutes, 14.63 seconds and was the only sit skier in the women’s field to complete both slalom runs on two very difficult courses.

“It was a bit of a challenging run. They set it on a pretty steep hill, the snow was very aggressive and they set the courses quite fast,” Joines explained. “In my second run, most of my field was no longer in the race, so I just had to finish to win, which actually made it a little more stressful than having to charge it. So I did a mix between charging it and taking it easy. It made for a bit of an ugly run but I'll take it.”

In all, 36 racers in the men’s and woomen’s standing, sitting and visually-impaired categories did not finish one of their two runs or were disqualified for missing a gate.

“I’m so happy with how the team handled the difficult portions,” Sven Pouliot, World Cup head coach of the Canadian Para-Alpine Ski Team, said. “The racers with one ski, so either in a sit ski or one-legged skiers were having trouble.”

Pouliot was especially pleased with the skiing of Matt Hallat, who is a right-leg amputee.

Hallat, of Coquitlam, B.C., made a mistake in the first run which cost him in the final standings, but he laid down the second-fastest time in the men’s standing category in his second run..

“Matt showed that he can belong with the top guys,” said Pouliot of Hallat’s charging second run. “It was really good to see.”

Hallat finished ninth in a two-run combined time of 2:00.08.

“I had an awesome second run,” said Hallat. “I had a pretty good first run going too and then the bottom of the hill was so fast that it just kind of caught up to me and I had to take a little circle around. It was up to my training standards, which is what I’ve been kind of trying to get to in the last few days.”

Kirk Schornstein, of Spruce Grove, Alta., also had his best World Cup career result finishing sixth in men’s standing with a time of 1:52.44.

“I feel pretty good,” said the 18-year-old. “I didn’t expect to get sixth . . . I’m very happy with myself. I achieved better than what my goals were.

“I’m waiting to just get on that podium”

Morgan Perrin, of Vancouver B.C., did not finish his second run.

“I've had better days,” Perrin said. “My first run I was pretty happy with it, probably my best result (10th position) I’ve had after a first run in a World Cup. I gave’er pretty good in the second run and I crashed. I’m a little frustrated, but I’m happy that I’m going in the right direction.”

The men’s standing slalom was won by Alexandr Alyabyev, of Russia, in a two-run combined time of 1:45.31, ahead of Switzerland’s Michael Bruegger in second (1:46.06) and Austrian Andreas Preiss in third (1:47.64).

The Canadian Para-Alpine Ski Team now travels to La Molina, Spain, for two IPC World Cup slalom races and a giant slalom from Jan. 31 to Feb. 2.

This article is a press release from Alpine Canada.