SOL | 1996 APSS Fawcett and Shaw Punish

Fawcett and Shaw Punish Euros
In Mount Snow Super-G

Canadian rider Mark Fawcett got off to a shaky start in Saturday's Super-G at the American Professional Snowboard Series North American Championships at Mount Snow, Vermont. "I screwed up so much at the top that I knew I was going to have to go all out the rest of the way," Fawcett said.

Going way wide on the top three gates, Fawcett looked like he was on his way to the kind of dissappointment he had a day earlier during the slalom. But after the fifth gate it pulled it back to gether and posted the day's fastest time a 1:28.42.

It wasn't until seven riders later that Austrian Dieter Happ would come the closest to bettering Fawcett's time. But Happ's time of 1:28.47 wasn't enough. 1995 World GS Champion Martin Freinademetz, of Austria placed third but was happy with his finish. "Dieter and I went out last night and partied way too much," Martin joked. "We were laughing at the finish because we couldn't believe we did as well as we did."

In the womnen's event Betsy Shaw of Manchester, Vermont had was slotted to run the course second behind 1995 Overall World Champion Michele Taggart of Salem, Oregon, but Michele "forgot her bindings," and missed her start.

"My bindings were on my slalom board and I thought it was in the car," Michele said only minutes before the scheduled start. "But I guess someone took the board out of the car last night."

Though Betsy doesn't enjoy running first in a start order she dropped into the course and held a suprising tight line considering the icy conditions. "I thought was going really round on the gates," Shaw said. "When I got to the bottom I was worried that my time wouldn't hold up especially with all the Europeans here. But I guess I rode a better line than I thought."

Rosie Fletcher of Girdwood, Alaska placed second followed by Renata Keller of Switzerland.

   WOMEN
        1 Betsy SHAW USA
        2 Rosey FLETCHER USA
        3 Renata KELLER SUI
        4 Christine RAUTER AUT
        5 Cecile PLANCHEREL SUI
        6 Brigitte KOECK AUT
        7 Brigitte PETRUZZI SUI
        8 Leslee OLSON USA
        9 Isabelle BLANC FRA
        10 Lisa KOSGLOW USA
        11 Aurelie REY FRA
        12 Christine GUTTER SUI
        13 Shinobu UESHIMA JPN
        14 Sandra FARMAND GER
        15 Polona ZUPAN SLO
        16 Muriel VANEY SUI
        MEN
        1 Mark FAWCETT CAN
        2 Dieter HAPP AUT
        3 Martin FREINADEMETZ AUT
        4 Nicolas CONTE FRA
        5 Manuel KOGLER AUT
        6 Ian PRICE USA
        7 Adam HOSTETTER USA
        8 Jasey Jay ANDERSON CAN
        9 Dieter KRASSNIG AUT
        10 Matthieu CHIQUET FRA
        11 Ross REBAGLIATI CAN
        12 Christophe SEGURA FRA
        13 Zeke STEGGALL AUS
        14 Cla MOSCA SUI
        15 Stefan BOECK AUT
        16 Felix STADLER AUT