Howden & Drury double up on ski cross podium at home World Cup in Craigleith
Reece Howden and Kevin Drury gave the home fans in Craigleith, Ontario two big reasons to celebrate, finishing first and third in Friday’s FIS Ski Cross World Cup race.
Howden dominated the big final to earn his fifth victory of the season while Drury had to battle back to get his fourth podium finish of the season. Finishing second between the two Canadians was Switzerland’s Alex Fiva, the reigning Olympic silver medallist.
“It feels great. On home soil, I did what I was supposed to do, got the job done, I’m super proud of myself,” said Howden. “Got that win out of the start, out of the far right gate which was pretty tough. But just being really solid, really minimized the mistakes on the bottom part of the track, was able to hold the win.”
Drury called the partisan crowd “boosting” and the end result “extra special” as he experienced the emotions of putting down a strong performance in front of his parents.
“I had my doubts this morning coming into this race. It’s a very start-oriented track, not a ton of passing. I somehow managed to make passes,” he explained afterwards. “I feel like when you kind of accept the possibility of a short day that’s sometimes when you have your best days. I was just having fun out there.”
And to keep the momentum going, Howden added another silver medal in Saturday’s portion of the event, sharing the podium yet again with Drury, who took bronze. Germany’s Florian Wilmsmann won the gold Saturday.
Howden moved up to now sit second in the chase for the Crystal Globe, a trophy he’s won twice before. Drury also bumped himself up one spot in the standings to rank sixth overall on the season, one that has been somewhat of a renaissance for him.
“I’ve been pretty injured for the last four years. I always thought in the back of my head that I still had the speed, still had the abilities,” said Drury. “So to come back this year and to prove it to myself that I was able to do it and I still had the speed, I can’t even describe it.”
“I’m really happy when Kevin gets on the podium,” said Howden. “Obviously it’s a competition, he wants to win as well but at the end of the day we love to race together and we love to see each other be successful.”
The math in a big final is pretty simple: four athletes racing head-to-head means all but one of them will end up on the podium. Drury admitted he had that thought in his head, even if he wished the final placements were a little different.
“To be honest, I’d like to trade positions [with Reece],” he laughed before continuing: “It’s so cool. I think I was literally thinking at the top in the start: auto podium. Two of us, four guys, so go Canada and I’m so glad we got two on there.”
On the women’s side, the three Canadians entered all ended up in the small final. India Sherret maintained her lead in the Crystal Globe standings by winning the small final to place fifth overall. Abby McEwen ended up sixth overall while Courtney Hoffos finished eighth.
Saturday was a different story for Canada’s women. Hoffos and Abby McEwen grabbed the silver and bronze medals, respectively, finishing the weekend with some redemption. Switzerland’s Fanny Smith won the gold medal in a very close final.
“We always kind of joke that fifth place feels better than fourth because you finish the day off on a high note, you finish it off with a win and that’s the kind of performance and skiing that I know I’m capable of, so I’m just going to try to carry that into tomorrow and into the next few races,” said Sherret after Friday’s event.
The team will now fly off to Engadin, Switzerland where their world championship competition will take place March 21-23. The last two World Cup races of the season will be held March 29-30 in Indre Fjall, Sweden.