Larisa Yurkiw claims women's Canadian downhill title
Owen Sound, Ont., native edges rival Marie-Michele Gagnon to win 1st crown in 5 years
Larisa Yurkiw edged rival Marie-Michele Gagnon to take the women's national downhill title Sunday at the Canadian alpine skiing championships in Whistler, B.C.
Yurkiw, from Owen Sound, Ont., took the title with a time of one minute 4.25 seconds on a fast track at the Dave Murray National Training Centre.
Gagnon, from Lac-Etchemin, Que., was second in 1:04.63.
Yurkiw won her first national title since 2008, when she claimed both the downhill and super-G crowns.
"I'm happy to have it back. It's been a long time and I skied really well today," Yurkiw said. "I risked in the right places and I feel good.
"I just stuck to my plan and tried not to change too much. Sometimes when you are on a track for a few days you start overthinking things and [going into] too much detail can be too much. I try to just keep things simple and I think I did my job."