Sara Renner's day ended early at Whistler Olympic Park. It could have been longer if Renner, an Olympic silver medalist in the cross country team sprint in 2006, had been able to pass a fellow competitor in the qualifying round of the 1.4 km individual sprint. As it was, Renner found herself trapped in a two-skier traffic jam.
WHISTLER, B.C. -- Sara Renner's day ended early at Whistler Olympic Park. It could have been longer if Renner, an Olympic silver medalist in the cross country team sprint in 2006, had been able to pass a fellow competitor in the qualifying round of the 1.4 km individual sprint. As it was, Renner found herself trapped in a two-skier traffic jam.
"I had a good race," Renner said after failing to advance. "I caught the girl in front of me coming around the stadium and there was only one track. I tracked her and she wouldn't get out of the track, so I had to go way far around her.
"In a race that's about seconds, to have to get out of the track and go way far around, it's really difficult. "That's the nature of the game. Unfortunately, because I'm not very high in the sprint standings, the possibility of catching people is out there."
Renner figures the traffic jam cost her 2-5 seconds. She missed advancing to the quarter-finals by just over a second. Ouch. On the bright side of the Canadian ledger, Chandra Crawford, the Olympic sprint champ from 2006, and Daria Gaiazova, the Muscovite-Montrealer, now a resident of Banff, both advanced.
Crawford's boyfriend, Devon Kershaw, and Stefan Kuhn advanced for the men.
