2009 Natural Track World Cup #1 St. Sebastian, Austria

Prior to heading over to Europe for the start of the 2009 World Cup season, the Canadian team found themselves in the enviable situation of training domestically. It had been a few years since the team last had the privilege of having a track in Canada to train on before the beginning of the season. Normally the Canadian athletes have to travel to Europe early to work in just a few days of practice before starting the competition season. This year however the track in Grande Prairie was up and iced in mid December which provided the team with two weeks of solid training.

The competitive season began with a World Cup race in St. Sebastian, Austria. Only one Canadian athlete, Kaj Johnson, was able to be in Europe in time to compete in this race. This was Kaj's first time seeing this particular track and he was impressed with it's technical design. Luckily, he was able to land a couple training runs to get accustomed to the new track before the weekend of the race.

After sliding the track a few time through training, Kaj had a few concerns regarding the last chicane before the finish. It was a very fast section and he figured it would be a location of focus for many athletes during the race.

The race began well for Kaj and he posted a time fast enough to leave him sitting in 15th position after the first run. However, as he had suspected the final chicane presented some minor problems for him and many other athletes on the second run and he unfortunately fell behind one place to finish the race at 16th in the final standings. Regardless, this was Kaj’s best World Cup finish to date.