LUDLOW, Vt. -- Sondra Van Ert of Ketchum, Idaho, took control on the second run Friday to overtake Olympic snowboard teammate Rosey Fletcher of Anchorage, Alaska, and win the giant slalom for her ninth U.S. championship.
Fletcher and the semi-ageless Van Ert, who turned 35 on March 9, flip-flopped their results from Thursday's slalom, which was won handily by Fletcher.Van Ert, who won three World Cup races this winter and a bronze medal in giant slalom in the world snowboard championships, had a winning time of 2 minutes, 42.30 seconds. Fletcher was silver medalist in 2:42.48 and Lisa Kosglow of Boise was third in 2:42.94.
"Hey, I get to play for another year," Van Ert giggled as she discussed possibly continuing until the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. She graduated from the University of Utah after retiring from World Cup skiing in the mid-1980s. She became hooked on snowboarding while recuperating from knee surgery and watching kids having fun riding 'boards in Sun Valley, near her home.
"I was third in the first run, but I was two seconds back of Rosey," Van Ert said, "so I had nothing to lose on my second run. I tried to ride aggressively."
In the men's snowboard event, Canadians Mark Fawcett and Jasey Jay Anderson finished 1-2 with Peter Thorndike of Meredith, N.H., in third place. Fawcett dominated the race, posting the fastest time on each run to finish in 2:29.41.