TELLURIDE, CO (Dec. 15) - Sunny Telluride opened its doors to the world's best snowboarders Tuesday as the LG FIS World Cup kicked off with the first of two parallel giant slalom competitions. Fraenzi Maegert-Kohli of Switzerland and Matthew Morison of Canada won the event while Michelle Gorgone (Boston) finished 11th for the U.S.

It was the first of five Olympic qualification events for the discipline.

Maegert-Kohli was followed in the women's results by Germany's Amelie Kober in second and Kimiko Zakreski of Canada in third.

"It was a very disappointing day from my side. We've had great support from Telluride with the training on the hill, so there are no excuses," U.S. Snowboarding Alpine Head Coach Jan Wengelin said.

Gorgone was the sole U.S. woman in the finals. The Bostonian was looking fast, but a problem took her out of the first run, landing her with a hefty time differential she was not able to make up, finishing in 11th."On the second run she made up a lot of time on the other rider's advantage, but it wasn't enough. Could she have made it? Yes, she could have," Wengelin said.

In the men's race Austria's Benjamin Karl was second and France rounded out the podium with Mathieu Bozzetto in third.

Justin Reiter (Steamboat Springs, CO) and Chris Klug (Aspen, CO) were each aiming for a podium finish for the home crowd but, after finishing a slim margin behind their counterparts in the first run, they were unable to catch up. Klug wound the day out in 15th and Reiter in 16th.

"It's there in all the athletes, but they just need a little bit of work and a little bit of confidence to go in the right direction," Wengelin said. "We've just got to look ahead to Thursday.

"The racing action in Telluride continues on Thursday with the second PGS competition and Visa Snowboardcross Cup races on Saturday.

Please contact buzz@fedorka.com for further Telluride real estate information.