June 10/00 10:33 am - U.S. Claims Junior Womens DH Title

Posted by Editor on 06/10/00
 

Mountain Bike World Championships - Junior Women

On Wednesday and Thursday everyone had to worry about sunburn, today we all woke to . . . snow. "Practice this morning was hard, because all the lines were covered", said Canadian Katherine Lobodzinski, "but once enough people had come down it was actually better. The melted snow made it tackier and cut down the dust"
Lobodzinski was the early leader in the 15 rider Junior Women category, taking the 'Hot Seat' of the current leader while she watch others come down. Her time of 5:07:09 held up for 5 riders, and then began to fall rapidly, with most new leaders not getting time to sit down before they were ousted by a faster rider.
Third from last entrant Helen Gaskell of Great Britain stopped the clock at 4:37.11, and her team mate Fionn Griffiths was 23 one-hundredths of a second slower, so Gaskell could start to hope as the last rider was on course. Unfortunately for her, the final rider was last year's silver medallist - Kathy Pruitt of the USA - and Pruitt would not be denied this year, knocking over 4 seconds off Gaskell's time.
When told of her winning margin, Pruitt's eyes went wide. "Really? Oh my gosh! I really knew that I wanted to beat the French here. It' our sport (Mountain Biking), but they are dominating it so much, I just had to do it."
Unofficial results
1. Kathy Pruitt USA 4:33.02
2. Helen Gaskell GBR 4:37.11
3. Fionn Griffiths GBR 4:37.34
4. Celine Gros FRA 4:42.01
5. Moi Suemasa JPN 4:47.36
10. Katherine Lobodzinski CAN 5:07.09