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Renner roars to bronze in Canmore World Cup

Veteran fights back onto podium in likely last hometown race

In her final World Cup race in her hometown, and her last before the Olympics, Sara Renner truly delivered.

The veteran Canadian cross-country ski star battled to a bronze medal, marking her first World Cup podium placing since March 2006, in Saturday’s (Feb. 6) classic sprint race at the Canmore Nordic Centre. Fired up by the cheers of some 7,000 fans who lined the trails, including her three-year-old daughter and her alpine racer husband Thomas Grandi, Renner dug deep and achieved her goal of winning a medal in front of Aria.

Renner characterized winning the home-snow medal as “ridiculously unbelievable.”

“My legs were feeling a bit heavy when I got to the start of the finals, but when I heard the people cheering I just went for it,” Renner said in a Cross-Country Canada statement. “This will help our team believe we can do it, and we are going to ride this wave of momentum into the Olympics.”

In her 14-year career, Renner has won five World Cup medals and became the only Canadian to win a cross-country ski medal at a world championship with the bronze she captured in the 2005 classic sprint race. After winning a silver medal at the 2006 Olympics with Beckie Scott, Renner took a year off to have Aria, whom she has lovingly described to The Question as now being “large and in charge.”

“I knew what hill Aria was watching on, and could hear her cheering me on today. It is full circle this weekend for us. It is my final race here in Canmore, and Aria had her first race downtown yesterday on main street (at a community celebration),” Renner said in the statement.

Before the Canmore event, Renner’s best World Cup result of the season was her 17th-place finish in a Tour de Ski race. When Canada’s Olympic cross-country team was announced in January, Renner said she’ll be looking to be in the hunt for a podium at the Games in Whistler, and Aria will definitely be waiting for her at the finish line.

“I’m sure she’ll be more interested in building snow forts and what not,” Renner laughed to The Question, adding that’s the way it should be for a three-year-old.

A principled and thoughtful person on top of her athletic success, Renner decided to donate her $5,000 worth of prize money from Saturday to the Right to Play organization, while Olympic skate-sprint champion Chandra Crawford gave $1,000 of her own money.

Renner reached the podium Saturday alongside Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk, the gold medallist and currently the top-ranked woman on the World Cup cross-country circuit, and Sweden’s Ida Ingemarsdotter.

Canmore served up a solid showing for the rest of the Canadian team before they head to Whistler for the Games. Four Canadian women, including Renner, qualified for the head-to-head heats in their event. Dasha Gaiazova of Banff, Alta., finished 12th, followed by Crawford in 23rd and Perianne Jones of Almonte, Ont., in 25th.

With Sweden’s Emil Joensson winning the men’s race, Calgary’s Brent McMurtry was the top Canadian of five Canuck men to make the top 30, finishing 19th. Canmore’s Stefan Kuhn finished 22nd, followed by Banff’s Phil Widmer, Devon Kershaw of Sudbury, Ont., and Sean Crooks of Thunder Bay, Ont.

Canmore’s Ivan Babikov led the way for the Canadians in Friday’s (Feb. 5) 15-kilometre skate-ski race in his adopted hometown, gritting out a 10th-place finish while Italian racers Giorgio Di Centa and Pietro Piller Cottrer grabbed the top two spots. Rossland’s George Grey finished 17th, while Renner would up 25th in the women’s 10-kilometre race.

Elsewhere:

• Whistler’s Mercedes Nicoll won a bronze medal on Saturday at the women’s halfpipe finals for the 2010 Burton Canadian Open event in Calgary, while Olympic-bound teammate Sarah Conrad of Dartmouth, N.S., captured silver behind Kendall Brown of New Zealand;

• Meanwhile, their alpine teammates won five of six medals up for grabs at the NorAm Cup races at Oregon’s Mount Bachelor on Thursday (Feb. 4), with Richmond’s Alexa Loo, Caroline Calvé of Aylmer, Que., and Calgary’s Kimiko Zakreski sweeping the women’s podium and Toronto’s Michael Lambert winning gold while Mont-Tremblant’s Jasey-Jay Anderson captured the bronze.

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