In the last sbx race before the Olympic Games, the Swiss rider nailed the best time in the ladies time trials in her first run (1:07.12 min) at Stoneham. With that time in store, the 27-years-old took a time-out in the second run with no one being able to beat the time of Francon who has one World Cup win to her belt so far. Second fastest girl on the course was Maelle Ricker from Canada (1:07.39) followed by Simona Meiler (SUI, 1:07.94) and local hero Dominique Maltais (CAN, 1:08.12).
On the men's side, Watanabe needed both runs in order to clear the qualifiers. After the US-boy had crashed in the most technical section of the course (just like Markus Schairer, AUT and Nick Baumgartner, USA) the 27-years-old locked in 1:03.25 minutes for his second try - just when he needed it the most. While currently being in a tough battle for the fourth Olympic US team spot, the Park City resident set an exclamation mark by heading into the knock-out finals with start number one. Tomorrow, Watanabe will meet two team mates in his first heat: Nick Baumgartner who finished 16th and Jason Smith who secured his ticket on the bubble as 32nd. Canada's Simon Bonenfant rounds out the first eighth final of the men's.
However, one of Watanabe's main contenders in the race for a Vancouver spot was second placed Ross Powers who had raced down the course in 1:03.58 minutes. Shaun Palmner, another US snowboard veteran, finished fourth (1:03.87) right behind of Canada's Robert Fagan (1:03.64) thus also keeping high hopes for the final ticket to the Winter Games.
Bad day for Swiss team
Despite some great race action on the Stoneham course the day was overshadowed by a few hard crashes. Thus, it wasn't the day of the Swiss team with a total of three riders out of the competition due to injury - with all of them having been brought to hospital for further medical examination. While Hans Reichen fell in the men's qualification, Emilie Aubry and Olympic Champion Tanja Frieden went down at the same spot in the ladies' time trials.
