adminCanada’s Kelsey Serwa stayed in the hunt for the overall ski cross World Cup title Sunday with a second-place finish in Branas, Sweden.
World champions Serwa, of Kelowna, B.C., and Chris Del Bosco, of Sudbury, Ont., were both runners-up in the women’s and men’s finals at the penultimate races of the World Cup season.
They will be joined by the rest of the Canadian team at the World Cup finals at Myrkdalen-Voss, Norway, next weekend, where Serwa will battle Sunday’s winner Anna Holmlund, of Sweden, and Germany’s Heidi Zacher for the overall World Cup crown.
“It goes down to the last race. Kelsey is still in the running,” said assistant coach Brent Kehl. “She has been racing well all year long, with injuries. She’s been a trooper and don’t forget that we missed one World Cup (in Germany, to attend X Games), so I think she would be very deserving of the overall title.”
Serwa was hot on Holmlund’s heels throughout Sunday’s final but wasn’t able to pass her at the bottom. Holmlund won ahead of Serwa and Norway’s Marte Hoeie Gjefsen. Zacher was fourth.
Serwa, the X Games gold medalist, remains third in the overall World Cup standings with 530 points, behind Zacher (567) and new leader Holmlund (572).
Canada’s Marielle Thompson, of Whistler, B.C., was seventh and Calgary’s Danielle Poleschuk was eighth. All three Canadian women are in the top 16 in the standings and qualify for the finals.
On the men’s side, Del Bosco narrowly lost a tight battle with Austria’s Andreas Matt to finish second in the men’s final. Conradign Netzer, of Switzerland, was third and the Czech Republic’s Tomas Kraus was fourth. Matt has a big lead in the overall standings with 779 points, ahead of Del Bosco (515) and Finland’s Jouni Pellinen (422).
Brian Bennett, of Quesnel, B.C., who needed a strong result to qualify for the World Cup finals, got the job done with a 10th place finish on Sunday. Toronto’s Nik Zoricic was 13th, Dave Duncan, of Golden, B.C., was 17th and Whistler’s Davey Barr was 22nd. All five Canadian men are in the top 32 in the standings and have qualified for the World Cup finals.
