Canadian sit-skiers Colette Bourgonje and Chris Klebl both narrowly missed the podium in the IPC World Cup debut at the Canmore Nordic Centre, Monday (Dec. 9).
Bourgonje finished fourth in the five-kilometre race, battling through frigid temperatures, which rendered her hands useless. She still finished the race in 22:02.7, 14 seconds away from the bronze medal.
“It was a painful race actually because my hands were so frozen,” said Bourgonje. “It was a tough one that way, but it was a fun course. It’s got some technical parts and was a little slow.”
Bourgonje was reserved in her first lap, but pushed it on the hills to find an advantage. Had her hands not frozen up, a medal was possible.
“I tried hard on the hills. The best parts were the climbs. I did the Alberta Cup last week and that was a good warmup for this race,” Bourgonje said.
The Saskatchewan native has spent 21 years on the Canadian ParaNordic Ski Team. She won her first national title in 1991 and has been to six Paralympic Winter Games. She was a cross-country runner before a car accident paralyzed her from the waist down in 1980.
Klebl was 1:07 off the pace and ended up in fifth in the men’s sit-ski race.
“It’s a good first race of the year. Unfortunately, it’s a world cup, but that’s how it goes,” said Klebl.
In order to peak for the Paralympics, Klebl is still building his shape. He brought 25 pairs of skis to the Canmore world cup, so he’s ready for all conditions.
“It’s a pretty relentless course, so there’s no recovery. You have to be in good shape to do well,” he said.
Klebl moved to Canmore after racing for the United States for six years, where he won more than 12 world cup medals. The 2011 world champion broke his back snowboarding in 1995 and soon after began hand cycling before moving to sit-ski.
Coming off an injury, Canada’s Sebastien Fortier finished 21st. Fortier had two rotator cuff injuries as well as bladder and blood problems over the past 14 months, which hampered his training. He broke a pole right before the race start, but in the end was satisfied with his result.
“With the training I did last year and the health, it’s not bad,” Fortier said. “We will see if I’m strong enough to go to Russia.”
Canadians Yves Bourque and Tony Flores finished 24th and 27th respectively.
