Canada's Woolstencroft wins gold

March 16, 2006
CBC Sports

Lauren Woolstencroft of Calgary won gold in the women's standing giant slalom on Thursday to earn her second medal of the Torino Paralympic Games.

The 24-year-old's two-run time of 1:57.81 put her well ahead of Germany's Andrea Rothfuss (1:59.42), who captured silver, and France's Solene Jambaque (1:59.81), who took bronze.

Arly Fogarty of Montreal was 15th at 2:14.33.

There was confusion after the race ended as the scoreboard in the finish area wasn't working. Athletes and coaches gathered around a board on which officials handwrote results before an announcement was made over loudspeakers that Woolstencroft had won.

"It was very nerve-wrecking for sure," said Woolstencroft. "To come down and not see anything on the board, I felt like I had a good run but you never know."

Woolstencroft's win came three days after she captured a silver medal in the standing super-G. She also came fourth in last Saturday's downhill.

Jambaque's bronze was her third medal of the Games after she won gold in both the downhill and super-G.

Woolstencroft, who was born without legs below both knees and no left arm below the elbow, now owns three Paralympic medals. She won gold in the super-G at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

She will have one more chance to add to her medal haul in Turin when she competes in the standing slalom on Saturday.

With Woolstencroft's gold on Thursday, Canada moved to fifth in the medal-count standings with nine. Russia leads with 24.

Schoenfelder wins again

Germany's Gerd Schoenfelder captured his third medal — and second gold — of the Torino Paralympic Games on Thursday, winning the men's standing giant slalom.

Schoenfelder also won gold in last Saturday's standing downhill and silver in Monday's super-G and now owns 16 Paralympic medals.

Schoenfelder's two-run time of 1:48.610 on Thursday put him 1.32 seconds ahead of Japan's Masahiko Tokai, who took silver, and 2.21 seconds in front of Switzerland's Pfyl Thomas, who claimed bronze.

Matthew Hallat of Coquitlam, B.C., the lone Canadian in the field of 66, finished 32nd at 18.02 seconds behind the winner.