Are, SWE (Feb. 9, 2019) – Less than half a second. On a snowy, foggy day that saw the men’s downhill start lowered due to wind and delayed due to visibility, Canada’s Ben Thomsen (Invermere, B.C./Windermere Ski Club) finished 0.42 seconds off the podium, racing to a career-best, World Championships’ seventh-place finish in Are, Sweden, on Saturday.

The 31-year-old speed specialist closes his fourth FIS Alpine World Championships having bested his previous Worlds’ results in both the downhill and super-G.

“My run was really good. I was really happy with the skiing,” said Thomsen, who hasn’t traditionally excelled on shortened courses. “It’s an outdoor sport – you can’t control Mother Nature. No matter the weather and the conditions, you always have to ski your best, and I’m happy that I skied my best. It just wasn’t enough today. It’s my best World Champs ever, and it’s been my best season ever, so I’m really happy with everything.”

Twenty-three-year-old teammate Brodie Seger (North Vancouver, B.C./Whistler Mountain Ski Club), competing in his first World Championships, finished 33rd. The youngest Canuck to start, and fellow Worlds’ rookie, Jeffrey Read (Calgary/Banff Alpine Racers), 21, was 41st.

“I was a little bit all over the place today. It’s pretty challenging conditions, lots of fresh snow on the course,” said Seger while recapping his run from the finish area. “There is a very small track that had been skied by all other competitors, and there’s a couple of spots where I found myself just outside that track in the powder, which is not fast. So that was unfortunate.”

Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud was crowned the 2019 Men’s Downhill World Champion with a run time of one minute, 19.98 seconds. Fellow Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal claimed silver, just .02 back from his teammate, as he hangs up his skis on a storied alpine racing career. Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr raced to bronze. Full resuls can be found at FIS-SKI.com.

The 2019 Audi FIS Alpine World Championships resume on Sunday with the ladies’ dowhill. All races are streamed live at CBCsports.ca.