GREBENZEN-ST LAMBRECHT, AUT (March 8, 2011) - Matt Hallat stepped up to the plate at the Austrian National Championships this past weekend, finishing second in the super combined event in Grebenzen-St Lambrecht, Austria.
The Squamish, B.C.,-based athlete crossed the finish line with a two-run combined time of one minute, 38.78 seconds, in the men's standing category.
"I feel like I got a monkey off my back. I've never skied up to my potential in Europe and I finally feel like this result shows I can do it overseas," said Hallat. "This season especially, I didn't ski well in the World Cup events and World Championships in Italy.
"I skied really well in the super-G race on Sunday and I didn't really make any mistakes. I had one small mistake in the last pitch in slalom that cost me a little bit of time and it probably cost me the first place as well, but I was still pumped from my result."
Austria's Hubert Mandl was the only athlete who beat Hallat in the super combined race. Third place went to his teammate, Andreas Preiss, who clocked a time of 1:39.76.
The IPC Austrian National Championships was due to feature four races in three days but due to safety issues the super combined scheduled for the first day was cancelled.
"That was pretty disappointing," said Hallat. "It was a tough day with very long delays and the race was up in the air so no one really knew what would happen.
"The last day of racing was supposed to be a slalom race but since the European athletes don't get to race a lot of speed events they decided to run the super combined instead."
The field at the Austrian National Championships included many IPC World Cup athletes, with a total of 17 nations in attendance and an average of 75 entries in each race.
Five other Canadian athletes took part in the race series - Nanaimo, B.C., athlete Andrea Dziewior, Kirk Schornstein of Spruce Grove, Alta., Michael Whitney of Nort Bay, Ont., and Brayden Luscombe from Whistler, B.C.
Dziewior finished fourth in the ladies standing category with a time of 1:55.14.
In the men's category, Schornstein finished sixth, while Whitney and Luscombe were 10th and 11th, respectively.
The National Para-Alpine Ski Team is on its way to Kimberley, B.C., for the TELUS Canadian Para-Alpine Ski Championships, starting on March 15, 2011.
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