Whistler's Michael Janyk said he was sitting in a good position entering the second run of Saturday's (Feb. 27) Olympic men's slalom at Whistler Creekside. But his second run didn't quite work out as planned.

Janyk stood in 11th place, just 1.39 seconds behind leader Giuliano Razzoli of Italy, after the first run, causing the 27-year-old Whistlerite to declare, “I feel good about my position. I'm in striking distance.”

But any hope he might have had to move up evaporated as he lost time in the middle of the course and, instead of placing better on his second run, again posted the field's 11th-fastest time, 52.91 seconds, and finished the race in 13th place.

While he improved on his 17th-place finish in the same event at the 2006 Olympics, Janyk said the result was disappointing given where he stood after the first run.

“I'm pretty devastated,” Janyk said. “I was going for it, and unfortunately I didn't have it (on the second run). I'm not quite sure what happened.”

Razzoli, the first-run leader, came down the course last and captured the gold medal, besting Croatia's Ivica Kostelic by 16 hundredths of a second. André Myhrer of Sweden posted the second run's fastest time, 50.73, to capture the bronze medal.

Razzoli's dramatic final run set off celebrations among the Italians in both the crowd and the press area. It was the first Olympic medal for Italy in the slalom since Alberto Tomba took silver at the 1994 Games in Lillehammer.

While Janyk was disappointed for himself, he expressed pleasure for his teammate Julien Cousineau, who came into the second run in 19th position but posted the second run's second-fastest time to move up to eighth position.

Cousineau's run, in fact, kept him in the leader's chair for the next 11 skiers. As each successive skier came down and failed to improve on his overall time, Canadian fans in the crowd cheered.

Trevor White of Calgary finished 26th.

“It's an awesome experience to be sitting up there,” said the native of Lachute, Que. “Obviously people were cheering for me.

“I'm extremely happy with my result. On my first run I was right in there with the guys but I just made a mistake. On the second run I wanted to let it go and just fly.”