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From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.

Tag: Brittany Webster

Remembering Larry Sinclair: A Legacy Extending Well Beyond Highlands Nordic

Canada’s Larry Sinclair, a founding member of the Highlands Trailblazers Ski Club and provincial- and national-level coach since the late 1970s, died at age 59 on Jan. 25 after battling cancer. (Photo: “Light the trails for Larry”/fundrazr.com)

There are some things you must know about Larry, for he is no ordinary man. He is one of the most extraordinary human beings I have ever met. — Brittany Webster, on Highland Trailblazers Ski Club founder Larry Sinclair

Larry Sinclair was, in a word, dedicated — to his sport and to young skiers, and not just in helping them become top-level athletes, but making them the best people they could be, according to former Cross Country Canada (CCC) President Richard Lemoine.

A provincial and national skier from Collingwood, Ontario, who went on to help found Cross Country Ontario and the Highlands Trailblazers Ski Club, Lawrence “Larry” Sinclair passed away at home on Jan. 25 at age 59 after battling cancer. (Photo: Obitsforlife.com)

And the longtime coach, national-team wax technician and founding member of the Highland Trailblazers Ski Club knew his time was limited. Fifteen days before Sinclair, 59, passed away on Jan. 25 after battling cancer, the NorAm and Junior/U23 World Championships Team Trials were held at Highlands Nordic in Duntroon, Ontario.

“We all knew that Larry was very sick and while we were all hopeful, we knew he faced a huge challenge,” Lemoine reflected in an email. “Despite this, Larry dedicated his efforts to making sure that our trails were ready to be homologated – that included spending weeks laying out some new trails and wielding a chain saw to cut down hundreds of trees.”

The races were a success “and many athletes commented on how the trails were a true test of athletic abilities that separated the very good from the very best,” he added. There were no free rides at Highlands, something Sinclair was proud of: “You have to work to get around the course and grunt your way up every last hill,” Lemoine wrote.

That NorAm weekend, Lemoine and Sinclair’s brother Shawn, the chief of competition, reminisced while watching some of the races. How would Sinclair be remembered? Shawn noted that his brother had created a race site at Highlands, and that the ski resort it had become was an afterthought.

“It was if Larry hung on to make sure that the races were a success. That was the last time he was able to make it to the resort he so loved and dedicated so much of his life to,” Lemoine explained. “Larry touched many in his too brief stay on this planet. He was a mentor to not only athletes but also to many ski coaches and officials. He was also a stalwart in the community for many other causes.”

“Larry touched many in his too brief stay on this planet. He was a mentor to not only athletes but also to many ski coaches and officials.” — Richard Lemoine

A competitive provincial and national skier from Collingwood, Ontario, Sinclair became a coach in the late 1970s, starting his career with the University of Guelph ski team, according to a CCC press release. In 1989, he coached Canada at its first World University Games appearance in Sofia, Bulgaria, and additionally led several junior and provincial team trips to Europe.

Sinclair went on to join Team Canada at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, as a wax tech. He served as the head coach of Ontario and Southern Ontario for several years and received the Heinz Niederhauser Coaching Award for his excellence in coaching.

He helped create Cross Country Ontario (CCO) to promote the regional development of the sport and enable direct access to provincial funding. In the ’90s, he instructed coaches and course conductors and also mentored athletes and coaches as the founder of Highlands Trailblazers, with a nordic facility that’s developed into “one of the finest, all privately funded, cross country facilities in the country,” according to CCC.

“It was a family operation with any profits in a volatile, weather related business, going back into the further development of the facility itself,” the release stated.

“While Larry was such a force in the skiing community he was even more dedicated to his wife Pat and his cherished daughters Kelly and Megan,” Lemoine wrote. “I had the honour of being a good friend of the entire Sinclair family and saw the love and attention he lavished on his daughters.

“We truly lost a great person,” he added. “He will be truly missed. Perhaps the best way to sum up his and his family’s dedication to the sport is that in lieu of flowers the family has requested that donations be made to the ski club he founded so many years ago – the Highlands Trailblazers.”

Unrivaled Commitment

A two-time Olympian and 2013 Senior World Championships team member, Brittany Webster, 27, grew up at Highlands. She remembered Sinclair as “a person with a huge heart who puts everyone and anyone before himself. He has single-handedly developed the Highlands Nordic facility through his sheer love of cross-country skiing and has devoted his life to sharing his passion with others,” she wrote in an email.

Webster first met Sinclair when she was a “keen yet very novice” high-school racer.

“For all Larry knew, I was yet another one of the thousands of high school racers he had seen pass through his club on their way to a University career path who would occasionally drag out their skis once every few years to go for a jaunt on the trails,” she wrote. “The amazing thing was that he treated me just like everyone else, like gold.”

He gave her a 60-percent discount on her first pair of race skis, helped her out with a “great set of boots” and let her use the facility essentially for free.

“I could not even ski,” Webster wrote. “This is the kind of person Larry is, he does anything for anyone in hopes that they will one day share his and their enthusiasm for cross-country skiing with their young ones.

“Perhaps he did not expect it, perhaps he did, but I took Larry up on his offer and went to Highlands Nordic every weekend I could. As Larry saw me develop into a somewhat decent provincial racer he began to develop his race program as best he could to accommodate me,” she added. “With no money and no race program in place, Larry found a way to hire a full-time coach for our little club. His time, effort, and dedication to me took me places I would have never dreamed.”

Three years later, Webster was the top Canadian at 2007 Junior World Championships in Tarvisio, Italy, placing sixth and ninth in two individual distance races.

“I travelled the world racing in different countries, but always always made the effort to come home to Highlands Nordic,” wrote Webster, who now trains with the Alberta World Cup Academy in Canmore, Alberta. “It is a very special place Larry has developed. It is my home, they are my family.”

Sinclair started his days at 5 a.m. and worked until close, 7 p.m., after which he would meet Webster and review her video technique sessions with her.

“Larry takes no days off. Even a few years ago, when he suffered through many chemo treatments to treat his stage 4 cancer, he was up at the crack of dawn getting ready for a 10 hr day at the Nordic Centre,” she recalled.

Whatever spare time he had, Sinclair mulled ways to give back to his sport and his family, she added.

“Every year I return back home I see new changes to the facility,” she wrote. “[Eight kilometers] of new race trails have been built over the last 3 years, there have been additions to the chalet, new wax trailers, and new equipment for the athletes.

“It goes without saying that Larry’s commitment to me, and my dreams has gotten me to the Olympics. Without him I would not be an Olympian. His legacy continues as he mentors young kids just like me and is developing a facility and program that is raising eyebrows and collecting medals all over the country.”

Light the Trails for Larry

After Sinclair’s passing, Lemoine initiated an online campaign called, “Light the trails for Larry,” which initially aimed to raise $9,000 to light at least 3 kilometers of trails at Highlands — part of Sinclair’s vision to provide the public with more hours on snow.

“Larry reached out to the larger community and an affordable solution was found – a mixture of low voltage LED lights – deep cycle batteries – solar panels to recharge the batteries,” the fundrazr.com website explains. “The cost per light is approximately $300 – much cheaper than any other system. A light is required about every 100 metres.”

The first part of the plan is to illuminate 3 k of trails, and eventually, 8 kilometers, which would cost approximately $24,000. Contributors of $300 or more will be recognized with a plaque at the chalet. As of Wednesday, more than $18,000 had been raised.

For more information, visit https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/7wDpf/sh/64UK15.

February 11, 2015
NorAm Preview: All About Racing the Best in Canada, and the U.S.
American Brian Gregg (l) and Canadian Andy Shields of the Thunder Bay National Development Centre ski alongside each other in the 11 k classic individual start last weekend at the NorAm opener in Rossland, B.C. Gregg went on to place fifth and Shields was 12th. (Photo: FRESH cafe & apres/Facebook)

While the opening weekend of the U.S. Super Tour marked the start of the North American race season in late November, Canada’s NorAm circuit kicked off last weekend in Rossland with two classic distance races, held despite challenging conditions and a lack of snow.

The second stop of the NorAm circuit was originally scheduled for Whistler this Friday and Saturday, but once again, warm weather and insufficient snow led the races to be moved further inland to Sovereign Lake in Vernon, British Columbia, better known as Silver Star.

This season, the NorAm will visit six venues, wrapping up at the Lappe Nordic Centre in Thunder Bay, Ontario, for Canadian Ski Nationals. The circuit attracts many of the most competitive Canadian and American domestic cross-country skiers, juniors and seniors alike, all trying to earn their stripes and log top results in an effort to get to Europe.

Canadians Alysson Marshall and Heidi Widmer, teammates at the Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) in Canmore, Alberta, and on the national development team — also based in Canmore, started the winter off with strong results at the SuperTour opener in West Yellowstone, Mont. Marshall won the first sprint of the season, and Widmer placed second.

In the 10 k freestyle the next day, Widmer again broke into the top 10 with a ninth-place finish, and Marshall finished 17^th.

Patrick Stewart-Jones (AWCA), Bob Thompson (Thunder Bay NDC), Michael Somppi (AWCA/NST D-team), and Andy Shields (AWCA) were among several Canadians racing in West Yellowstone. There, Shields made the sprint A-final, but finished sixth after breaking a pole. In the 15 k, Stewart-Jones led the Canadians in 17th.

One week later, Stewart-Jones emerged as the winner of the classic sprint in Bozeman — the second SuperTour stop in Montana. Marshall placed fifth in the women’s A-final, and the next day in the 10 k classic mass start, she finished 14th, just ahead teammate Dahria Beatty (AWCA/NST U23) in 15th. In the men’s 15 k classic mass start, Somppi was the top Canadian man 13^th.

Rossland’s opening NorAm races challenged organizers with difficult conditions, but quality racing still took place thanks to the hard work of the staff and volunteers. Warm weather and rain previously wreaked havoc on the snow, but below-freezing temperatures last weekend made for hard-packed, icy conditions for the two distance races. Leading up to the races, organizers ruled the course unsafe for a sprint and added another classic distance race to the schedule instead.

Yukon’s Annah Hanthorn racing to third on the opening day of the 2014/2015 NorAm season, in the women’s 7.5 k classic in Rossland, B.C. (Photo: FRESH cafe & apres/Facebook)

Marshall swept both races, as did American Kris Freeman. Somppi hit the podium in third in last Saturday’s 11 k classic, and was again the top Canadian in fourth in the following 15 k classic. Andrea Dupont (Rocky Mountain Racers) placed second to Marshall in the 7.5 k sprint on Day 1, and junior Annah Hanthorn (Yukon Territory Ski Team) placed third, then second in the women’s 11 k on Day 2.

Following an Olympic year, there have been some shifts in the key Canadian players: Dasha Gaiazova, Amanda Ammar and Zoe Roy were three of the nation’s top women last season and retired this spring. Graham Nishikawa, the reigning overall men’s NorAm leader, has re-committed his focus to guiding Canadian Para-Nordic teammate Brian McKeever at International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Cups and 2015 World Championships.

Many of the top athletes are aiming for top results in order to qualify for later World Cups, U23 and Junior World Championships, and potentially senior World Championships in Falun, Sweden.

“Making the transition from domestic to World Cup racing is what everyone on the development team is trying to achieve, me included,” Somppi wrote in an email. “Experience is certainly helpful. The more international racing you do, the more comfortable you get with it and the better you perform.”

Women to Watch

Alysson Marshall at the last season’s Canadian Eastern Championships in Cantley, Quebec. (Photo: Canadian Eastern Championships)

Heidi Widmer (AWCA/NST D-team) – With last year’s overall NorAm cup winner Emily Nishikawa starting her season in Europe on the World Cup, Widmer is one favorite in the running for an overall NorAm title this season.

The 23-year-old Sochi Olympian already has a podium under her belt from West Yellowstone, where she also posted the fastest women’s qualifying time in the sprint. In late October before the season officially started, she qualified fourth in the Frozen Thunder classic sprint among U.S. Ski Team members and other top Canadians, and then edged Nishikawa in the distance skate to finish ninth.

Alysson Marshall (AWCA/NST D-team) — In six races so far this season, Marshall, 26, has won half of them. Marshall and Widmer have already been battling back and forth; neither has beaten the other in consecutive races this season (although Widmer did not race in Bozeman or Rossland). Marshall, 26, has been consistent in distance and sprinting, a critical asset in the run the overall NorAm title. Last season, she finished third in the NorAm standings behind Nishikawa and Widmer, respectively.

Dahria Beatty (AWCA/NST U23 team) – One of the youngest threats on the circuit, Beatty, 20, is a first-year senior who proved as early as the Frozen Thunder classic sprint that she’s able to ski with the best. There in October in Canmore, she qualified second behind former Olympian Perianne Jones.

Andrea Dupont (Rocky Mountain Racers) – After finishing fifth overall in the 2013/2014 NorAm (behind Ammar in fourth), this 34-year-old distance veteran is looking to lift herself to World Cup starts.

A sprint specialist, Dupont stressed in an email the importance of dominant qualifiers, while adding that racing well in the heats and advancing throughout each round is important as well. But more than anything else, she wants better qualifiers than last season.

“It isn’t enough to just get into the heats in Canada; you have to win the qualifier here if you want to have a chance of qualifying in Europe,” she explained.

Despite her sprinting preference and sickness early in the season, Dupont claimed second place in Rossland’s 7.5 k classic race.

Cendrine Brown (CNEPH/U23) – This 21-year-old member of the Pierre-Harvey Training Centre (CNEPH) in Quebec, made the junior-national team last season and competed at U23 World Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy.

This year, after focusing on speed to improve her sprinting, Brown has already recorded fourth- and sixth-place finishes in Rossland, and will continue to shoot for another U23 World Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The first three NorAm weekends serve as trials for Canada’s U23 and World Junior teams.

Brittany Webster (AWCA) — A two-time Olympian and veteran to high-level racing, Webster, 27, started her season off in 15th in the Bozeman classic sprint. She didn’t race in Rossland, but Webster has been busy this offseason; competing in her first off-road triathlon World Championships, where she won the amateur division.

Also this fall, she launched a pursu.it crowd-funding campaign in September and has raised over $19,500 to help cover the cost of what she anticipates to be an expensive international race season.

Men to Watch

Michael Somppi (AWCA/NST D-team) racing in the Frozen Thunder classic sprint on Oct. 24. (Photo: Angus Cockney)

Michael Somppi (AWCA/NST D-team) – Third overall in the NorAm last season; Somppi, 26, is eager to build on his past performances. For now, he’s focused on superb racing before the end of December.

“At this point in my ski career, I’m 26 and if I want a shot at being a World Cup competitor I need to be able to podium at home,” Somppi wrote in an email. “So every time I step on the start line I’m looking to finish on the podium.”

He was the top Canadian in both classic distance races in Rossland last weekend, claiming a bronze medal in the 11 k classic and finishing fourth in the 15 k.

Raphaël Couturier (CNEPH/U23) – In August, Couturier, 21, was the only Canadian not part of the World Cup Team invited to come down from Quebec to train with the team at a dryland camp in Stratton, Vt. He ranked fifth overall in the NorAm last year, and has started the season in seventh and 10th in Rossland.

Patrick Stewart-Jones (AWCA) – Wrapping up the 2013/2014 NorAm season in sixth overall, Stewart-Jones, 23, will be looking to improve his placing. Last winter, he posted some of his best results of the season at Canadian Olympic Team trials in Janaury (where he was third in the freestyle sprint and sixth in the 15 k classic), and was able to race at U23 World Championships as well as Scandinavian Cups in Latvia and Estonia.

In six races, he has two top 10’s: one win and an eighth-place finish in the 11 k classic last weekend.

Knute Johnsgaard (Independent) – Likely one of the biggest dark horses at the beginning of this season, Johnsgaard spends most of his training hours without company in the Yukon.

Despite his training partner leaving for school, having limited time with his coach, and developing his own training plan with the help of Graham Nishikawa, Johnsgaard is confident in his training, the work he has done and how it will translate on the tracks.

“I’m always really focused and motived to just get out and go by myself,” he explained. “It’s a little lonely sometimes but I don’t need anybody to ‘push’ me.”

Johnsgaard, 22, added he likes being off the radar and not having anyone knowing how his training is going. To that end, he joked that he’s won every single time trial he’s done this year. He’s hoping to continue this streak and claim victories at NorAm races.

Andy Shields (Thunder Bay NDC) – Last season, Shields finished ninth overall on the NorAm, yet his early season results indicate he’s had a successful summer of training that could put him closer to the top overall this time around. So far, the 23 year old has posted two sixth-place results: first in the West Yellowstone sprint and also in the 15 k classic last weekend.

Wild Cards

World Cup Academy teammates Kevin Sandau (NST D-team), Jesse Cockney (B-team), and Graeme Killick (B-team) were among the most competitive on the NorAm circuit last season, finishing second, fourth and seventh overall, respectively. Cockney and Killick earned Olympic spots for Sochi based on the mid-season NorAm races and all three have started their seasons on the World Cup in Europe.

In an email, Sandau described his excitement to race on the World Cup and some of his expectations: “Davos is a very unique race and I think it plays well with my strengths with it being a longer distance and a course with longer climbs than most other world cups,” the 26 year old wrote. After some tuneup FIS races in Switzerland earlier this month, he placed 70th in the 15 k classic last weekend in Davos.

“At the end of the day it really is the final result that counts, but more than anything I want to cross that line and just have that feeling of it being the perfect race,” he wrote.

Multiple-time Paralympic gold medalist, Brian McKeever races to 13th in the Rossland NorAm 11 k classic on Dec. 13. (Photo: FRESH cafe & apres/Facebook)

Last year’s overall NorAm leader, Graham Nishikawa is backing away from domestic racing to fulfill his commitments to the Para-Nordic Tea, although he confirmed he would take part in one or two NorAms to prepare for IPC World Cups. Despite the races not being his focus, Nishikawa, 31, is a potential treat if he makes it to the start line.

His younger sister Emily matched him as the women’s overall NorAm winner last season. She is currently racing on the World Cup, where she posted a career-best 29th last weekend in Davos.

“The major difference between racing on the World Cup and domestically is the depth of the field,” Emily Nishikawa explained in an email. “If you lose a few seconds, you will lose a few places as well. This probably won’t happen when racing domestically because the field is just that much smaller.”

Annah Hanthorn and Maya MacIsaac-Jones, both 19-year-old juniors, finished third and fifth respectively in last weekend’s 7.5 k classic (and Hanthorn was second in the following 11 k classic). Then there’s always Perianne Jones, a perennial World Cup staple, who could make NorAm waves should she return to Canada.

Already, it’s shaping up to be another exciting year of racing. Some athletes are most competitive in distance races, others sprinting, and a myriad of possible contenders can take the victory on any given day. Stay tuned for NorAm updates via the Continental Cup blog: http://blogs.fasterskier.com/continentalcup

2014/2015 NorAm Schedule
- Dec. 13-14: Rossland NorAm opener (and U23/Junior World Trials 1): 7.5/11 k classic & 11/15 k classic
- Dec. 19-20: Vernon freestyle interval start & classic sprint at Sovereign Lake (U23/Junior World Trials 2)
- Jan. 8-11: Duntroon 15/30 k skiathlon, classic sprint, 10/15 k freestyle (U23/Junior World Trials 3)
- Jan. 15-18: Western Canadian Championships in Canmore: 10/10 k classic, freestyle sprint, classic mass start
- Jan. 30-Feb. 1: Eastern Canadian Championships in Cantley: freestyle sprint/prologue, 10/15 k freestyle, 15/20 k classic mass start
- March 14-21: Canadian Ski Nationals in Thunder Bay: freestyle team sprint, 5/10 k freestyle, 10/15 k classic, 30/50 k freestyle mass start
— Alex Kochon contributed reporting
December 19, 2014
Webster Excels in First XTerra World Champs

Brittany Webster in the Oct. 26 XTerra Off-Road World Championships in Maui, Hawaii. (Photo: Mike Cavaliere)

When Brittany Webster’s name appeared atop a list of results this past weekend, it wasn’t for Canmore’s Frozen Thunder. Instead, Webster replaced snow with sand and finished as the first amateur female in the 2014 XTerra Off-Road World Championships on the north shores of Maui, Hawaii Oct. 26.

Webster always had an interest in triathlons, as she loved both cycling and running. While she doesn’t particularly enjoy swimming, the additional challenge attracted the 26-year-old.

Turned onto the XTerra racing series by a friend, Webster jumped into the Canmore XTerra triathlon on Aug. 8, where she earned a starting position at the World Championships after she claimed the top female spot. Once qualified, it was an easy decision to attend the Championships.

Webster is no stranger to success in skiing. She’s seen four top-tens at the World Junior and U-23 Championships, numerous podiums at Canadian Nationals, and a trip to Sochi for the 2014 Olympics earlier this year.

Given her results on skis, her off-snow success was not surprising.

In an email, Webster wrote that adjusting to the warm and wet conditions of Hawaii was challenging for someone who is accustomed to the dry and cool climate of the Canadian Rockies.

“My first interval workout was on the track and I lied (sic) down in the sprinkler system on the baseball field afterwards just praying I would cool off. It was an important experience because it made me realize how much I needed to drink if I wanted to last three hours in the heat,” she wrote.

Come race day, Webster and roughly 700 other competitors faced a rough ocean as they began the first stage of the competition — a 1.5 k swim. The warm Hawaii waters were not as welcoming as one might expect. According to Webster, she and her fellow competitors faced swells of five to six feet.

“The waves were some of the biggest XTerra had ever seen and there were guys running out of the water back to the start… a few dropped out for sure. Swimming is not my forte, but embracing challenge is. I pretended I was surfing and that kept me smiling instead of panicking,” she wrote.

Once she exited the tumultuous waters, Webster was faced with a 32 k bike on the slopes of the West Maui Mountains.

2014 Olympian Brittany Webster (second from r) with her Canadian teammates before the Closing Ceremony in Sochi, Russia: (from l to r) Heidi Widmer, Perianne Jones, Amanda Ammar, and Emily Nishikawa (Photo: Emily Nishikawa)

According to 2014 Olympian, the mountain bike was challenging due to the vertical terrain and slick trail. While Webster managed to maintain control throughout the majority of the 32 k course, on the final turn she flew off her bike. The result was a tweaked knee.

Webster shook-off the fall and continued to the 10 k running portion of the race, but her pace was slowed and the pain in her knee inhibited her speed on many of the course’s uphills.

“I bailed on the last corner of the bike and tweaked my knee pretty good, so I actually had to walk all of the uphills on the run until the halfway point when the pain began to subside,” she wrote.

Despite the injury, Webster finished as the top female amateur competitor. Furthermore, with a time of 3:17:36 she placed 160^th overall and would have been 18^th in the professional female category. Her time of 47:45 in the 10 k run was the tenth fastest women’s time on the day.

As for the tweaked knee, Webster explained that in the end it wasn’t a serious injury.

“Nothing ice, massage and a hair cut at the Paul Mitchell tent couldn’t fix,” she wrote.

Webster wrote that preparing for the World Championship triathlon was an excellent cross-training opportunity because it allowed her to diversify her training program. She explained that her body doesn’t respond to the same rollerski and strength exercises that it used to, and that adding swimming and biking into her repertoire has increased her fitness levels.

Brittany Webster (105) leads Emily Nishikawa (101) in the women’s 15 k skiathlon at Canadian Olympic Team Trials on Jan. 12 in Canmore, Alberta. Webster took second after winner Amanda Ammar (102). (Photo: Angus Cockney)

“A different response stimulus can go a long way and I quickly found myself, after recovering from much calve (sic) and shoulder soreness, that I was getting fitter and it was translating right back into skiing,” she wrote.

Last winter Webster and fellow Canadian Amanada Ammar petitioned Cross Country Canada to earn a spot on the 2014 Canadian Olympic Team. The two were not initially included on the team roster but after FIS allotted more starting positions to Canada, Webster and Ammar were named to the team and competed in Sochi.

Webster, who took time off from skiing in 2012 and returned in 2013, will compete with the Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) after skiing for Team Mito last year. She is no stranger to AWCA, however, having trained with the club before her stint with Team Mito.

Webster explained that she is excited to return to the AWCA in the upcoming season.

“I have really missed being on a team and being able to support teammates of mine. I’ve also missed working alongside Chris, Mike and Stef. Those guys are so awesome, and the opportunity to work with them and the amazing people that are on the Academy made me want to commit to the AWCA,” she wrote.

There’s also another difference in Webster’s life going into the winter season. Adding to the slew of engagements and weddings in the ski community, she and AWCA race director Mike Cavaliere are engaged. Their wedding is set for next September at the Boundary Ranch.

“We are both animal lovers and have backgrounds with horses, love the ranch life, so it seemed fitting to have it there!” she wrote.

October 30, 2014
Canadian Women Stand Together, Reflect on Olympic Experience

The Canadian women’s team before the Closing Ceremony in Sochi, Russia: (from left to right) Heidi Widmer, Perianne Jones, Amanda Ammar, Brittany Webster, Emily Nishikawa (Photo: Emily Nishikawa)

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia — One by one, the four Canadian women in the 30-kilometer freestyle mass start last Saturday, their final race of the Olympics, walked away from the finish line and into the media corrals, assembling as a unit to be interviewed.

Without watching the race, one might’ve guessed they missed the relay; that’s how much of a team these women appeared to be.

Two were teammates on the Alberta World Cup Academy and Canadian Senior Development Team: Emily Nishikawa and Heidi Widmer, both in their first Olympics.

The other two were independent racers, Amanda Ammar, 28, of Team Ninja, and Brittany Webster, 26, of Team Mito.

All had finished within seven places of one another in the 30 k finale, with Webster notching the top result of 46th and Widmer, the youngest on the team at 22, placing 52nd. (On Friday, Widmer turned 23.)

Without the team’s three World Cup sprinters in Perianne Jones, Dasha Gaiazova and Chandra Crawford in the race, the group provided a glimpse of the future of Canadian women’s skiing.

Each had taken different roads to get there — Nishikawa and Widmer more traditionally through the Olympic Team Trials in January, and Ammar and Webster through an appeals process soon after the trials. The latter two, both former national-team members, were in their second Olympics since semi-retiring from the sport a few years ago. Ammar cited injuries and burnout; Webster had gone to the 2010 Vancouver Games but did not compete, then in 2011, decided her slip in results stemmed from a lack of enjoying the sport.

Ammar returned to racing in late 2011, Webster in 2012.

Come the next Winter Olympics, here they were, with two newcomers in Nishikawa, 24, and Widmer as teammates.

Several members of the Canadian Olympic cross-country ski team get the perfect photo opp at the Olympic rings in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia. (From left to right): Perianne Jones, Amanda Ammar, Heidi Widmer, Brittany Webster, and Emily Nishikawa. (Photo: Emily Nishikawa)

Together, the team had its best results of 11th in the classic team sprint with Jones and Gaiazova, 14th in the 4 x 5 k relay with Jones, Gaiazova, Nishikawa, and Webster, and a top individual result of Jones’ 23rd in the freestyle sprint, just ahead of Gaiazova in 25th.

The 30 k wasn’t a personal best for any of the Canadians, but it was a capstone in their respective careers.

Aside from her result of 49th, Ammar called it her most memorable part of the Sochi Games.

“I’m so proud of these girls — I mean 30 k is so hard,” she said, fighting tears while looking at her teammates. “I know we were all a little terrified, maybe, excited, but anyone who does this race is a hero in my eyes.”

Of her teammates, Ammar said she started the fastest and paid the price. Webster and Nishikawa passed her, and like Widmer, Ammar said that gave her motivation to push harder.

“A 30 k is just an abundance of walls and when you’re going to hit it you never know,” she said.

Webster said it was funny because the ended up within places of one another, but didn’t ski together. Only Ammar changed her skis, which she called “a mistake.”

“They got slower, but so did everyone else’s, I felt like,” Webster said.

Widmer was hoping the competitor she was skiing with would go in for a fresh pair.

“I was secretly like, ‘Please change, please change. OK, we’re not changing, we’re gonna do it,’” she recalled. “But my skis were fast, so I was like ‘If they change, I’ll change,’ but mine were faster so I was like … ‘Maybe I’ll just go chill.’ ”

Widmer went on to beat Croatia’s Vedrana Malec by nearly two seconds in what she called a “slow-motion sprint” to the finish. She had been skiing with Kazakhstan’s Tatyana Ossipova in front of her and Malec behind her for most of the race.

“The last 5 k, the Kazakh broke me and the [Croatian] chick passed me on the last uphill, and then I passed her back,” Widmer said. “I was like, ‘I will stay in front of her if it’s the last thing I do,’ so that was the sole victory.”

The four women laughed together, snapped a group photo and hung out under the sunny and warm skies. They were in no rush, despite being indescribably tired.

After finishing 33 seconds behind Webster in 47th, Nishikawa reflected on her first Olympics.

“From the start of my first race, the pursuit was an incredible feeling — ‘Oh my God, I’m an Olympian!’ ” Nishikawa said. “It was just really cool to realize, ‘Oh, I’m here,’ and I had a great race that day. I’ve had an incredible time here, so I’m incredibly fortunate and just feel incredibly grateful that I had the opportunity to get three Olympic races in.”

“The two words that stick out right now are how proud I am and how inspired I am that you get to represent your country and then you get to race against the best in the world,” Widmer said. “That has inspired you to be that much better, come back stronger.”

Webster praised her teammates after spending three weeks with them at a hotel in the valley town of Rosa Khutor. “It’s been nice to become close to everyone and feel like … for the first time in my entire ski career, I feel we have a great team,” she said. “I’ve never really felt that before.”

The Post-Olympic Period

After the Games, some team members, like Gaiazova, went home.

According to Cross Country Canada, Widmer will join other NorAm leaders, including Andrea Dupont and Alysson Marshall, in the March World Cups, which start this weekend in Lahti, Finland. Jones is the lone woman on the Canadian World Cup team who will be racing there, and Cendrine Browne was also called up for the races based on her results at U23 World Championships.

While Gaiazova could not be reached for comment, she tweeted on Feb. 23, the day after the 30 k: “Really sad to be going home instead of the World Cup races in Scando. Such is life… @cccski good luck to those racing!!!”

Head coach Justin Wadsworth said Gaiazova wanted to leave after she was done racing at the Olympics.

“We did tell her that she’s not welcome on the rest of the World Cup,” he said. “She broke all our team policies and code of conduct.”

After Gaiazova placed 44th in the 10 k classic, her second of four races at the Olympics, Wadsworth said she had “been out partying” the night before.

“We had talked about it at our Olympic briefing, that there’s no partying at the Olympic Games [before your races are over],” Wadsworth said, adding that Cross Country Canada had the paperwork to back that contract up. “She’s appealing it.”

On Feb. 17, Crawford tweeted that she was on her way back to Canmore.

Since the beginning of the season, there have been indications that this would likely be the last Olympics for Jones, Gaiazova, and Crawford, although when each plans to retire has not been publicly laid out.

“I will definitely race ’til 2015 at World Champs in Falun,” Crawford told FasterSkier more than a year ago. “It’s just set in my mind as a for sure, but I’ll probably reevaluate after the Olympics the feasibility of another quadrennial.”

Gaiazova said she’d make a decision after Sochi.

“When I ski race, I put my 100-percent effort into it, and as long as I’m able to do that and as long as there’s desire and determination I think I would be thrilled and honored to continue,” she said around the same time. “And if my priorities shift and something else comes up or for whatever reason I’m not able to perform at 100 percent then, you know, you sort of reevaluate and see if you want to commit to more.”

— Seth Adams contributed reporting

Lahti skate sprint start list

February 28, 2014
Canadians 14th in Women’s Olympic Relay: ‘We Need to Work on the Strength of our Women’s Team’

Canadian biathletes and cross-country teammates cheer on their own Perianne Jones on the first leg of the 4 x 5 k relay at the Sochi Olympics on Friday. Jones dropped to 14th and the team finished 14th, one place better than their women’s relay at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

FasterSkier’s coverage is made possible through the generous support of Rudy Project.

SOCHI, Russia — This time last year, the Canadian women didn’t finish the women’s 4 x 5-kilometer relay at World Championships. They couldn’t — they didn’t have a fourth skier.

Brittany Webster had come down sick during the championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy. It was unfortunate but it was also a glaring reminder that the Canadians lack depth in female distance skiers.

This year, Canada brought a total of seven women to the Olympics, nearly half of its 13-athlete squad. It would undoubtedly field a four-person women’s relay, just like in the 2010 Olympics and 2011 World Championships.

Starting in bib 14 of 14 teams based on their DNF at 2013 World Championships, the goal was to move up on Saturday.

In her second Olympics, Perianne Jones scrambled for the relay, which consisted of Dasha Gaiazova, Emily Nishikawa, and Webster. Despite starting in the last row of the mass start, the soon to be 29-year-old Jones (on Feb. 18) stuck with the pack up the first climb.

Halfway through the first 2.5 k loop, she was in 14th, but within 5.3 seconds off the leaders and a second of Ukraine’s Tetyana Antypenko in 13th.

Perianne Jones with her sparkly Canadian Olympic facial sticker still in tact after the women’s 4 x 5 k relay on Saturday at the Sochi Olympics.

“My goal today was to stick with the group for as long as I could and it didn’t end up being as long as I wanted it to be,” Jones said after the race. “I kind of blew up out there. … I felt good warming up, and I thought that I’d be able to hang on for at least 3, 4 k, if not more.

“I guess I was a little more optimistic than my body was,” she said with a laugh.

Jones tagged Gaiazova, also in her second Olympics, in 14th, 1:45.4 behind Russia in first.

“It’s tough for the other girls when I start off and hand off in the position I did,” Jones said. “It’s just a mental battle from there on in because they were skiing on their own and that’s rough.”

Gaiazova, 30, skied the 11th fastest second classic leg, but it wasn’t enough to catch 13th. With 54.4 seconds separating her from the next skier ahead of her, Nishikawa raced alone in 14th, handing off to Webster in the same position, about 1:20 back from 13th. Webster finished the race out for the Canadians in 14th, 6:10.9 behind the Swedish winners.

“We don’t have a good relay history in Canada so I think we were all hoping for a little better than that, but we have nowhere to go other than up,” Jones said. “Our last few years have been pretty dismal and we need to work on the strength of our women’s team, especially in distance because we’re just not there and it’s not quite a sprint race. Five k is a little bit longer than I’m used to. We really have to work on that.”

Managing a smile afterward and with a “bedazzled sticker” sporting Canadian Olympic logo still on her cheek, Jones said the team got in the spirit before the race, decorating their faces.

“I guess that wasn’t enough,” she said. “We’re looking forward to the team sprint and hopefully it’ll go a little better.”

Results

February 15, 2014
Webster 42nd in 10 k Classic as Canadians Struggle Through Slush

Dasha Gaiazova (Canadian World Cup Team) racing to 44th in Thursday’s 10 k classic individual start at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

FasterSkier’s coverage is made possible through the generous support of Rudy Project.

SOCHI, Russia — It’s not every Winter Olympics that athletes have to deal with temperatures soaring above 12 degrees Celsius and racing in slush.

Three of four of the Americans wore either T-shirts or sleeveless tops in the women’s Olympic 10-kilometer classic individual start, and while the Canadians were in white (as opposed to the black U.S. suits), it was still hot out there.

Mashed-potato-like snow during the womem’s 10 k classic individual start on Thursday at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Brittany Webster started to cramp a kilometer or so into the two-loop race, with the first half around on the upper part of the trails at the Laura Cross-Country Ski Center and the second lap down a roughly two-minute descent, and then back up again.

“It was a total battle with my mind,” Webster said after placing 42nd, the best result of four Canadian women.

“I felt good off of the start and then one minute in you’re like, ‘Oh man,’ and then you see people kind of skiing away and you can’t keep up with them. It’s hard not to think, ‘I wonder what’s gonna happen for the rest of the race. Oh my god, I’ve only done 2 k and I’m already cramping!’ You just have to play a mind game and basically say, ‘Stop! No! Look where you are; concentrate on that climb.’ ”

Once she got through the first half of the race, the 26-year-old Toronto native started to feel better on the long downhill.

“I think I was able to breathe it out and not create as much lactate on the shorter [climbs] which made it a lot better,” Webster said. “The conditions, too, it was a little hard to stay on my feet. I crashed twice, one just randomly going up an uphill. Both of them were in the back of the course over there, definitely the safer parts of the course, but it happens in these conditions. It’s thick, it’s soupy, but I really find it fun out there.”

Webster also wasn’t complaining about the 12 degree Celsius temperatures and accompanying sun. But she said it was difficult to determine whether she drank too much or too little sports drink that led to the cramping.

Canada’s Brittany Webster racing in the women’s pursuit at the Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

After Webster finished 3:23.2 minutes behind the race winner, Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk (who won in 28:17.8), Dasha Gaiazova was another 6 seconds back in 44th.

Gaiazova had started 30 seconds ahead of American Ida Sargent, and Sargent caught her quickly. The two skied together for much of the race, yo-yoing back and forth as Gaiazova carried more speed through the downhills and Sargent took the lead up the final long ascent back toward the stadium. Sargent ended up beating her to the line and ended up 34th, nearly 32 seconds ahead.

“It was definitely a very difficult one for me, but at the same time I don’t do many 10 k’s,” Gaiazova said in the second race of her second Olympics. “The last one I did was in Lenzerheide at the Tour de Ski and that was awful.”

There, in Switzerland on New Year’s Day, she placed 59th of 63.

“I didn’t have many expectations today, just wanted to really push it,” Gaiazova said. “I’m relatively happy. I wish I could’ve been a little faster maybe on the downhills and the flatter sections, I’m not used to pushing so much. I’m used to glide and relax.”

While Gaiazova said she could’ve used more glide, Canadian head coach Justin Wadsworth suggested that was not the way to go on this course and in these conditions.

“Everyone’s gonna be on klister and there’s only so much speed you can find with klister, especially in these conditions,” he said. “I think if you make the choice to go light on kick, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but you better be ready to tough it out with your arms because there’s a lot of climbs. In some ways, I think it almost becomes more of a who’s ready to suffer and slog it out.”

Gaiazova and Heidi Widmer were two of the team’s sprinters in the distance race. The Canadian national team brought three distance skiers to the Olympics — Webster, Amanda Ammar and Emily Nishikawa — but Nishikawa recently came down with a cold.

Ammar placed 55th (+4:31) and Widmer was another 13.1 seconds back in 57th in her second race of her Olympic debut.

“It was hard today; I’m struggling at these Olympics,” Ammar said in her second Olympics since the 2006 Games. “I had a tough lead-in with my skis getting all broken and a lot of stress leading up to the Games so i’m just trying to do the best I can and push the best I can and I did that today, but I think the results will not please me when I see them.”

Ammar said her skis were damaged in transit while flying into St. Petersburg when the flight company put her ski bag in an elevator and “taco-ed” her bag. Fischer helped her repair four of them, she said.

“Already it’s a tough course and then you add the hot weather and the slow conditions and it makes for a mentally tough day for sure,” she said.

Heidi Widmer (Canadian Senior Development Team) racing to 57th in Thursday’s 10 k classic individual start at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

“It’s a tough race for them and obviously they’re not in the world-leading shape,” Wadsworth said of Webster, Ammar and Widmer. “But I like the effort that Brittany and Amanda and Heidi put out there today. It’s not easy skiing towards back of the pack and having no confidence. I’ve been there and it sucks.

“I’m concerned for the focus of some of our women’s team,” he added. “We are at the Olympics and there are a lot of people working hard for them, as well as a lot of resources that have gone into them. I hope all our women are giving it their all, and preparing as best they can for each race. That’s all I ask.”

Widmer, 22, who filled in for Nishikawa, said she’s had some tough moments in her first Olympics, but tried to keep them in perspective throughout Thursday’s race.

“I feel pretty defeated, but these are the kind of races you think about in the summer and you’re like … ‘When I go back there I’m gonna train that much harder and that much smarter to make improvements,’ ” she said. “Looking up the last hill and being like, ‘Next time I do this it’s gonna seem that much easier. Every little failure you make is an opportunity to improve on it.’ ”

For Widmer, who specializes in skate sprints, she tried to think about being as smooth as possible and efficient with where she expended her energy.

“I had a pretty good idea that I would be able to start this race,” she said. “It’s really, really unfortunate that Em Nish came down with a cold. She is the princess, I should stay, queen of classic 10 k’s … but she’s making a smart decision taking care of her body first. I’m just lucky that I had a chance to start the Olympics and just absorbing as much as possible.”

Two days ago after placing 43rd in the skate-sprint qualifier, Widmer said she tried to FaceTime her parents on her phone during her cool down. Without a wireless connection at the venue, she gave up on it for the time being, and put her phone in her pocket.

“Running around the athletes village … I heard it in my pocket and then I saw them all in their sleeping gowns up in the middle of the night and I just broke down crying,” Widmer said. “Our sports psych explained it as your pyramid of support, so the stronger and wider that base of support is the stronger your summit of the pyramid is going to be.”

Thinking back to seeing her parents, two brothers and her sister and their significant others and her dog, she recalled: “They’re the best … Those are the kind of things that really put it in perspective.”

Results

February 13, 2014
First Race Over and Done, New Olympians (and Some Veterans) Soak Up the Spirit

Sadie Bjornsen (U.S. Ski Team) during the classic leg of the women’s Olympic 15 k skiathlon on Saturday in Sochi, Russia. She placed 31st in her Olympic debut.

FasterSkier’s coverage is made possible through the generous support of Rudy Project.

SOCHI, Russia – For some of the skiers and biathletes competing on Saturday, the races represented their very first experience as Olympians.

For rookies – and even for veterans – the Olympics can be stressful. Even though the races have the same formats as other World Cup events throughout the season, the Olympics is something different.

So how did it go for the North American first-timers?

“It was good practice for just getting used to what the Olympics are like,” U.S. Ski Team member Sadie Bjornsen, 24, said after finishing 31^st in the 15-kilometer skiathlon Saturday afternoon. “There’s a lot more stuff going on with nerves and stuff, it’s just sort of underestimated. So it’s good practice to get ready for some of the other races that I’m looking forward to more later in the week, like the 10 k classic on Thursday and then some relays.”

Jessie Diggins of the U.S. Ski Team (15) racing to eighth in Saturday’s 15 k skiathlon, the first race of her first Olympics, in Sochi, Russia. The result tied the best Olympic showing by an American female nordic skier, set by Kikkan Randall at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

The best coming-out party undoubtedly belonged to Jessie Diggins, Bjornsen’s 22-year-old teammate who placed eighth in the skiathlon. It tied the best-ever finish by a U.S. woman in an Olympic cross-country ski race, equaling Kikkan Randall’s eighth place in the classic sprint at the 2010 Vancouver Games. And the consensus was that it was also one of the best classic races of Diggins’ career.

That it came with all the added hype was perhaps more impressive – or perhaps not. Diggins has shown nerves of steel over the last few years, including when she anchored the U.S. women’s relay team to its first podium in a World Cup race last winter. At the time, the result was something of a shock.

Instead of the pressure, Diggins talked after the race about other new experiences that are uniquely Olympic. For instance, her parents made the trip all the way to Russia to cheer for her. That doesn’t happen for a usual World Cup race. Diggins also dyed her hair, intending it to come out red and blue, but it turned out more pink.

“It’s nice because then my parents can always find me!” she laughed.

Another unique experience was the support Diggins gets from home. Athletes’ home clubs are always excited when they make the international circuit, but the Olympics is draws even more support. For one of the first times in years, the U.S. athletes were swamped in the mixed zone with media from standard American news outlets. On the less stressful side, they have received messages, videos, and cards from home.

“My teammates actually made an awesome video for us,” Diggins said of her Stratton Mountain School T2 team. “They re-wrote the words to a song and were dancing and lip-syncing, and it got me really fired up.”

“I’m just so excited to finally be an Olympian,” Diggins said. “It’s a really cool feeling.”

Nishikawa Leads Canadian Women

Of the three Canadian women in the skiathlon, two of them were in their first Olympic race and another hadn’t raced at a World Cup outside of Canada in seven years. Emily Nishikawa, 24, led the team in 42nd at her first Olympic race.

“I was fighting hard; I felt really good today,” Nishikawa said after the race. “I’m just so happy to be out here. It was really cool at the start to hear the crowd and to enjoy the moment.”

As for nerves, the Whitehorse, Yukon, native said she was mostly excited.

“I had a big smile on my face right at the start and I was really happy to be here,” she said. “I pushed hard and hung in there with the skate. …I think I did a great job with racing and I did a good job with the pace.”

Last year, Nishikawa made her World Championships debut in Val di Fiemme, Italy. Before that, she had only raced two World Cups outside of the country. Comparing her Olympic experience so far to World Championships, she said she’s healthier and “feeling stronger all around.”

Brittany Webster, 26, placed 51st in the skiathlon — her first Olympic race after making the Olympic team in Vancouver but missing out on competing because of sickness. Feeling pretty collected in the morning, she said that changed before the race.

“We got to the start line and I was like, ‘This is a big deal,’ ” Webster said. “I definitely got nervous. The beginning of the race started really hard and not being used to the World Cup races took a little getting used to, but the experience of having your first race under your belt is going to be so good for the rest. I was so happy, the fans were amazing, the skis were great, and it was just so nice to racing a whole bunch of girls who are the best in the world.”

Before Sochi, Webster and Amanda Ammar trained in Seefeld, Austria, just over a week before the Olympics. They were officially named to the Olympic team on Jan. 24.

“We had a pretty crazy travel schedule; lots of train rides, lots of walking with ski bags, planes, things like that,” Webster said. “We are so happy to be here. Sochi is so amazing. We never really expected this. We’ve had a pretty good surprise.”

A 2006 Olympian, Ammar finished 55th on Saturday — two days after her 28th birthday — in her first Olympic skiathlon.

“It’s been seven or eight years since I’ve been on a World Cup so I expected the pace to be hard,” Ammar explained. “But still once you’re living it, it’s like, it’s Marit Bjørgen! It’s Therese Johaug! These girls are fast! It’s the Americans. It was tough and you just hold on for dear life. … Just to be here I am so proud of myself. Even though on the results today it’s nothing phenomenal.”

Smith Top North American Biathlete

Canadian biathlete Nathan Smith finished 13th in the first Olympic race of his career on Saturday in the 10 k sprint in Sochi, Russia.

In his first Olympics, Canadian biathlete Nathan Smith had the added nerves of starting first of 87 athletes in the men’s 10 k sprint on Saturday night.

“It was a little bit nerve-wracking,” Smith, 28, said. “The crowd pays a little bit more attention to you, and I haven’t started first before. Last night when I found out I was number one, I was like, ‘Wow.’ So I gave it some thought and thought of some strategies for the range where I could stay focused.”

In the end, it worked out as Smith held his position and finished with the fastest time, holding off Sweden’s Fredrik Lindstroem in bib 2. The two skied the exact same course times and also cleaned, but Smith shot faster on his way to hitting all 10 targets.

In fact, he tied teammate Jean-Philippe Le Guellec with the seventh-fastest shooting time. While Le Guellec posted his best Olympic result of fifth on Saturday, Smith broke through in 13th.

“I knew I could do this sort of race; you can’t always shoot clean, so I’m really happy with that,” Smith said, adding that he’d hoped for a top 16. “I had ambitious goals, but this year has been a big step up for me so I didn’t want to expect too much. At the beginning of this year I had no qualification criteria for the Olympics, and now I’m having great races.”

For the first time this year, American Leif Nordgren, 24, also shot clean in a competition — doing so at his first Olympics. He placed 45th in the sprint with perfect shooting and a couple close calls during three loops around Sochi’s hilly course.

With a near-50-degree afternoon cooling down significantly before the start of the 6:30 p.m. race, Nordgren said the moisture in the snow hardened and he almost crashed on one of the downhills on his second loop.

“I barely held on,” he said. “Which would’ve hurt.”

On the last loop, he pinched a nerve in his back and nearly fell to the ground. But all was well at the finish — Nordgren’s top-60 finish qualified him for Monday’s pursuit, and his physiotherapist got him “back up and running!” he later tweeted.

“I was probably a little bit more nervous then most World Cup races, but I just tried to put that deep down and focus on the things that you work on during training,” he said. “It paid off pretty well. This is the first time i’ve shot clean all year so I was really happy with that and looking forward to the pursuit now.”

As for the atmosphere, with bright lights illuminating the 3.3 k loop as if it were in broad daylight and an enclosed range directly in front of the stadium, Nordgren said, “It’s a really fun atmosphere … there’s not a ton of fans here, but they’re all pretty energetic. There’s actually a pretty good American fan base, so the atmosphere is really fun and exciting.”

Another American biathlete in his first Olympics, Russell Currier, 27, said the crowd size couldn’t compete with the World Cup in Oberhof, Germany, but it didn’t have to.

“Just the hysteria that comes with it is always ahead of anything else out there, at least for us anyway,” he said.

Currier placed 61st, less than three seconds out of the top 60 needed to qualify for the pursuit. He missed four prone shots, costing him about a minute and a half on the penalty lap, and he finishing 2:25 behind Norway’s winner, Ole Einar Bjørndalen, who won his seventh Olympic gold and 12 medal to tie Bjørn Dæhlie for the most Winter Olympic medals of all time.

“First race is always stressful,” Currier said. “I [was] just trying to have fun and focus on the process and not to build up any results and see what happens, essentially. For the most part a lot of things went really well today and one really key thing didn’t go so well.”

While it wasn’t the race he was hoping for, he couldn’t be disappointed with making it to Russia for a once-in-four-years opportunity.

“At the end of the day, it’s still the Olympics so I’m happy just to be here,” he said.

February 8, 2014
How Webster, Ammar Earned Additional Spots on Canada’s Olympic Team

Amanda Ammar (Team Ninja) leads Brittany Webster (Mito Canada) in the 15 k skiathlon on Jan. 12 at 2014 Canadian Olympic Trials in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Angus Cockney)

Editor’s Note: With the Olympic Games set to kick off in earnest with the Opening Ceremony on Friday night (Moscow Time Zone, 9 hours ahead of EST), the Canadian National Cross-Country Team is ready to go in the mountain village of Krasnaya Polyana, where it’s been training for the last few days. This article explains how their team grew by two just a few weeks before the Olympics, and shortly after the official nomination.

***

On Jan. 14, Cross Country Canada (CCC) nominated 11 athletes to its 2014 Olympic squad: a roster that included seven prequalified World Cup skiers, plus an additional two men and two women.

Over the next week, teams like the U.S. also announced their Olympic picks, with the U.S. nordic team opting to use 14 of its 17 allotted quota spots. Nations that chose not to fill their quotas for various reasons, limited support-staff accreditation being one of them, gave countries like Canada the option to bring more athletes.

By Jan. 23, the CCC appeals process was in its final stages regarding the selection of its own team — a policy designed to ensure member athletes get fair treatment when it comes to decisions that “may include, but are not limited to, carding, contract matters, harassment, selection and discipline,” according to the document.

Amanda Ammar (Team Ninja) racing to third in the Black Jack NorAm 10 k classic individual start on Dec. 15 in Rossland, B.C. (Photo: Shelley Peachell/Peachell Photography)

Two former national-team members who narrowly missed the Olympic cut based on their Canadian Points List (CPL) standings after Olympic Team Trials — Brittany Webster (Mito Canada) and Amanda Ammar (Team Ninja) — stepped forward.

“If an athlete is not satisfied with the decision of a selection committee in any of our selections, they can appeal internally within Cross Country Canada,” CCC High Performance Director Thomas Holland explained on the phone. “They go to the president, he [sends it to] another panel to hear the appeal.”

With the Olympics three weeks away and a panel typically having up to 21 days to hold a hearing, CCC rejected one of the appeals because of the short time frame, Holland explained. In that instance, athletes can go to Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC) to have their appeal reconsidered.

“That’s what Amanda Ammar did,” Holland said. “So then you basically have a hearing for both sides and there’s an arbitrator who decides the case.”

Based on CCC’s published criteria, which stated it could take up to 12 athletes to the Olympics, Webster was the first one in the door after CCC accepted her appeal.

“The criteria was a little ambiguous on one point, so she made a case internally to appeal,” Holland explained. “It was all friendly fire anyway. She brought that case forward for the ambiguity in the criteria, which was really looking at the second-place finish [at Olympic Trials].”

Reviewing Olympic Trials

The team’s selection process consisted of a prequalification stage at the World Cup level, followed by a series of NorAm races in early January in Canmore, Alberta, which doubled as trials. In addition to the seven World Cup athletes that prequalified, CCC planned to take four more athletes from the results of those trials: a male and female sprinter, and a male and female distance skier.

For three out of the four disciplines, the decision was clear.

Heidi Widmer of the Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) and National Senior Development Team (NST) won the second freestyle sprint after placing second in the first one to Chandra Crawford, of the World Cup Team and Team Ninja, who had prequalified.

Jesse Cockney (AWCA/NST) placed second and first, respectively, in the two freestyle sprints, and Graeme Killick (AWCA/NST) finished second in the 10 k classic race by just 1.5 seconds and then dominated the skiathlon a few days later.

As a result, Widmer, Cockney and Killick were all named to their first Olympic team two days after the trials, along with Emily Nishikawa (AWCA/NST), who won the women’s 10 k classic race by 54 seconds. She went on to place sixth in the 15 k skiathlon, more than 2 minutes behind Ammar as the winner.

Brittany Webster (105) leads Emily Nishikawa (101) in the women’s 15 k skiathlon at Canadian Olympic Team Trials on Jan. 12 in Canmore, Alberta. Nishikawa placed sixth in the final race of the trials, securing her spot at the 2014 Olympics. Amanda Ammar (102) won, and Webster placed second. (Photo: Angus Cockney)

Ammar had placed sixth in the 10 k classic, 1:50 behind Nishikawa. Webster placed second in both of those races.

Going into the trials, the general consensus among athletes was that winning one of the races was necessary to have a chance at nomination. Nishikawa was named to the team based on her CPL points for the two races better than Ammar’s, topping her by a single point, according to Ammar’s Facebook page. CPL points are the Canadian equivalent of USSA/FIS points.

After the Olympic team was announced, both Ammar and Webster filed appeals with CCC with separate arguments.

Ammar stated that the CPL-based selection process was flawed and additionally, that Canada wouldn’t fill its distance starts at the Olympics with the athletes already nominated to the team, with four sprinters among five women. She argued that, had Nishikawa placed fifth in the skiathlon (versus sixth), the points for the skiathlon would have been better because of Nishikawa’s strong point profile, which would’ve boosted Ammar’s points. The CPL scoring system considers only the seed points of the top-five finishers in each race to determine the race points.

Webster, on the other hand, could have been nominated to the team based on Olympic qualifying standards. According to CCC’s Nomination Procedures for the 2014 Olympics, an athlete does not explicitly need to win one of the trials races to be selected. In fact, a key component of qualification is having the best points between two trials races.

“If there are two race winners, the ranking list based on the athlete’s sum total of the designated distance races … will decide the top ranked athlete for the purpose of selection,” the document states.

Through the end of the trials on Jan. 12, Webster’s points for those races were higher than those of both Nishikawa and Ammar. That, paired with additional Olympic quota spots granted to Canada on Jan. 24, supported Webster’s grounds for nomination.

Holland said the whole process, including Ammar’s appeal to an outside governing entity, moved quickly — and involved other athletes, such as Para-Nordic Team veteran and 2010 Olympian Brian McKeever, who “started to appeal and for various reasons withdrew that appeal,” Holland explained.

While McKeever could not be reached for comment, Holland said McKeever, who won the 15 k classic at trials, brought up his case after more athletes were being considered for additional quota spots.

“He felt that he had a better ranking so why wouldn’t he be considered,” Holland said. “Once an outside appeal committee jumps in, the decision can get very messy because other athletes can come forward and say, ‘What about me?’ We made that case very clear. Anyways, we’re past it, we’ve got our team, and we’re happy to move forward.”

The entire process started shortly after trials, and with team-naming deadlines looming for both the national and Sochi Olympic committees, Holland said the panel had to move quickly.

“Sometimes you have to do this within hours,” he said. “That’s why it happened fast and that’s why we have an appeals process that allows for that. It moves pretty quick and these aren’t just hearsay, these are things where we have to put forward a case and put facts on the table.”

Reacting, Moving Forward

Once CCC acknowledged it could take up to 13 athletes to the Olympics, both Webster and Ammar received notice on Jan. 24 that they would be named to the team, according to Ammar.

“I found out on Friday at 6 a.m.,” Ammar said. “So it was a very long, exciting day.”

When she first discovered she didn’t make it, Ammar said, “Like a normal athlete, I just cried.”

Frank Ammar cheering for his daughter Amanda Ammar (Team Ninja) on the final day of the Canadian Olympic Team Trials in Canmore, Alberta. A week and a half after the trials, Amanda was named to her second Olympic team. (Photo: Angus Cockney)

The one-point margin was what got her.

“I mean if it was something huge, then I would have gotten over it, but luckily my dad doesn’t take really no for an answer, and he’s like, ‘Nope, nope, we’re fighting this, nope, we are fighting this,’ and he talked to my old coach, and they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, we more than have a case here, this shouldn’t be an issue.’ So we went forward, and there was a lot of people behind me and supporting me throughout this whole thing.”

A 2006 Olympian, Ammar, who turned 28 on Thursday, stepped away from skiing for two seasons (from 2009-2011) and came back to it with the help of her boyfriend and coach, Chris Butler. She had been derailed by injuries and dealt with pains in her back and foot as recently as last fall. The NorAm leader at the end of last season, she had the opportunity to start this winter over in Europe. She declined, resolving to rehab her injuries and train more at home to peak for Olympic trials.

“It feels deserving, it feels amazing, it feels exciting,” Ammar said of being named to her second Olympics. “I have never felt so strong in my whole career. Taking that time away and coming back and training the way I believed to be the best, and staying true to myself and doing my own things as an independent racer has never been more fun and more rewarding. When I hit those start lines at trials this year, I knew there was nothing more I could have done, and there was nothing more in my way.”

Eight years ago, the Olympics came as a bit of a surprise.

“I wanted to go to world juniors, and I wanted to be fit, and I ended up making the Olympics — sweet,” she said.

This time around, she revived and reinvented herself.

“I came back from so much,” she said. “I came back from an eating disorder, I came back from a back injury, I came back from food allergies, I came back from overtraining, I came back from sleep problems. It was so hard, and I put it out there — I made it real — I said, ‘I want to make Sochi,’ and I just went for it.”

A member of the 2010 Olympic team, Webster, 26, has also returned to the sport. Four years ago at the Games in Vancouver, B.C., she was initially too sick to race and did not start as a result.

“[The team] wanted to fly me back to Calgary so I could go back, and in their words, ‘Rest up for a day or two’ and then start training again, but not be around the Olympic environment,” Webster said. “They were going to fly me back for the team relay and the 30 k skate, and for me, it made a little more sense to stay in place and try to recover as best as I could.

“I had a fever, a sinus infection, a sore throat, and I wasn’t really fit to fly, so I decided instead to stay with my parents at their condo, and that didn’t fly well,” she continued. “So that was basically the end of the story.”

After taking some time off after the 2010 Olympic season, Webster renewed her zest for racing, making it to World Championships last year in Val di Fiemme, Italy, where sickness knocked her out for all but two of the competitions.

“I think that if I’m healthy and fit and feeling the way I do now, I can definitely pull out a good race,” Webster said. “What that is on the World Cup or Olympic scene, I have no idea. I would love to think that it’s a top 30, but I really haven’t had a lot of experience stepping on the start line in a good mindset and … healthy in a championship like this, so that would be like the ideal circumstance. In order to get there, I just have to stay happy and healthy and really just enjoy the whole process.”

Earlier this week, Webster and Ammar flew to Sochi to join their team in the mountain village of Krasnaya Polyana, where all the nordic events will be held. On Saturday, On Saturday, Webster, Ammar and Nishikawa will represent Canada in the women’s 15 k skiathlon, the first race of six women’s events at the 2014 Olympics.

“I came back from so much … It was so hard, and I put it out there — I made it real — I said, ‘I want to make Sochi,’ and I just went for it.” — Amanda Ammar

Accreditation

In terms of staffing, Canadian Head Coach Justin Wadsworth wrote in an email that they will have three coaches, seven wax technicians, a team doctor, osteopath, two massage therapists, physiologist, and Holland as the team leader in Russia. Of the 16, all but four (the doctor, osteopath, physiologist, and one masseuse) are accredited, which grants access to the venue and certain restricted areas.

Canada worked with Australia to bolster its accredited staff. According to Holland, the relationship between the two national teams started before the World Cup races in Sochi a year ago.

“It is simply an arrangement where we [work] their skis in exchange for accreditation,” he wrote. “Works for both nations. Every Games we are short on accreds for techs.”

February 7, 2014
Canada Adds Two Women, Webster and Ammar, to Olympic Roster

Amanda Ammar (Team Ninja) leads Brittany Webster (Highlands Trailblazers) in the 15 k skiathlon on Jan. 12 at 2014 Canadian Olympic Trials in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Angus Cockney)

Cross Country Canada announced late Friday night that it added two women, Brittany Webster and Amanda Ammar, to its 2014 Olympic cross-country team. That brings the team total to 13 athletes, seven women and six men.

The two former national-team members, who had each been to the Olympics before, filed appeals after 11 athletes were originally named to the team on Jan. 14 “knowing that with the team named … Canada would not have a full representation in the women’s distance races, which were recently granted,” according to a CCC press release.

“This combined with additional quota spots that became available to Cross Country Canada only [Thursday], confirmed their nomination to the team,” the release explained. “FIS provides quota spots to each country based on international rankings. If other nations do not use their entire quota, those spots are then redistributed in a second round of offers.”

At Canadian Olympic Team Trials from Jan. 8-12 in Canmore, Alberta, Webster and Ammar finished just outside the quota cutoff — with the one women’s distance spot going to Emily Nishikawa. Webster and Ammar are both distance skiers.

The founder of the Canmore-based Team Ninja, Ammar, 27, competed at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy. She took two seasons off (from 2009 to 2011) and dealt with injuries in her back and foot this fall, she won the 15-kilometre skiathlon at the Olympic trials.

Webster (Highlands Trailblazers) went to the 2010 Olympics, took some time away from the sport, and came back to compete at 2013 World Championships. The 26-year-old finished second in both distance races at trials.

“Adding Brittany and Amanda rounds out the most talented group of cross-country ski athletes to start for Canada at an Olympic Winter Games,” CCC High-Performance Director Tom Holland said in the press release. “This opportunity will allow these two additional athletes to continue their development with this opportunity to race at the Olympics. We welcome them both to the team.”

January 25, 2014
Widmer, Cockney, Killick, and Ammar Show Strength at Canadian Olympic Trials

The start of the men’s 30 k skiathlon at the Canmore Nordic Centre on Sunday. (Photo: Pavlina Sudrich)

CANMORE, Alberta — Four racers made claims to berths on Canada’s Olympic team this weekend in the freestyle sprints and 15- and 30-kilometer skiathlon on the last two days of Olympic Trials at the Canmore Nordic Centre.

Heidi Widmer of the Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) and Canadian National Team (NST), and Jesse Cockney (AWCA/NST) took top honors in Saturday’s freestyle sprint, while Graeme Killick (AWCA/NST) and Amanda Ammar (Team Ninja) won Sunday’s skiathlon.

Cross Country Canada (CCC) intends to name one sprinter and one distance racer per gender to the Olympic team based on this past week’s races at the Canmore Nordic Centre. The team will be announced Tuesday morning in Calgary.

“I didn’t want to be one of those Olympiczillas getting caught up in it all. … This is a dream come true, but I have only completed part one. Now the real journey and work begins.” — Heidi Widmer, 2014 Canadian Olympic Trials skate-sprint winner

2014 NorAm BUFF® Sprint Series from Twin Zebra on Vimeo.

Freestyle Sprint

Heidi Widmer of the Alberta World Cup Academy and Canadian Senior Development Team, en route to a victory in the 2014 Canadian Olympic Trials skate sprint on Jan. 11. (Photo: Angus Cockney)

Heidi Widmer all but guaranteed her selection to the Olympic team on Saturday with a win in the 1.3 k freestyle sprint. This backs up her second-place finish in Wednesday’s freestyle sprint to Chandra Crawford (Team Ninja/NST), who is already prequalified for the Olympics. Although Crawford did not race on Saturday, Widmer wrote in an email that she used the lessons she had learned from racing Crawford to help her take the win on Saturday.

“I have raced these trails and trained on them so many times, but this just feels so surreal,” Widmer told CCC. “I was on a mission for this. I didn’t want to be one of those Olympiczillas getting caught up in it all. There are so many ups and downs. I just wanted to stay focused on the process and not look back or ahead of myself. This is a dream come true, but I have only completed part one. Now the real journey and work begins.”

Behind her, the women’s field showed remarkable consistency from Wednesday’s freestyle sprint. In the absence of Crawford, the women’s top-four finishers from Wednesday simply became Saturday’s top three.

Biathlete Zina Kocher showed that her third place on Wednesday (in her first-ever sprint) was no fluke by finishing second in the trials on Saturday. Despite her strong finishes, she has no intention of switching over to cross country. Kocher is proud, however, of representing biathletes well.

“I know biathletes get a rep for not being as fast [and] strong as xc skiers, but I hope I have started to prove otherwise!” Kocher wrote in an email. “But I’m not going to make a complete switch [to cross country]. Biathlon has another element to it that I love [and] that makes it incredibly exciting and it would be hard to give that up!”

Andrea Dupont of Rocky Mountain Racers rounded out the podium in third.

Phil Widmer (AWCA/NST) leads teammate Jesse Cockney (second from l) and the rest of the men’s final at the 2014 Canadian Olympic Trials on Jan. 11 in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Angus Cockney)

For the men, Jesse Cockney moved up to top spot on the podium after finishing second on Wednesday and, along with Widmer, will almost certainly be named to the Olympic team.

Skiing tactically within the pack until the finishing stretch, Cockney moved alongside Phil Widmer (NST) in the finishing stretch and threw the hammer down to win the 1.7 k skate-sprint final by two seconds.

Widmer finished second and young-gun Patrick Stewart-Jones (AWCA) followed in third. Cockney described his finishing strategy to CCC:

“I just kept telling myself to get to the line. … Phil has been so strong, and I took that outside lane for the finish. I didn’t know what else to do, but I just wanted to get to the line. It has been years of hard work. I don’t know if it is official. I did all that I can do and I just want to enjoy this moment.”

15/30 k Skiathlon

With the qualification wrapped up for the sprint racers, the last chance for the distance racers was Sunday’s skiathlon.

Killick, who finished second to Brian McKeever (Canadian Para-Nordic World Cup Team) in the 15 k classic on Thursday, was a strong favorite heading into the men’s race and he delivered.

“My initial strategy was to try and break with someone in the classic and work together to hold off the group,” Killick wrote in an email. “I tried a few times to go the classic but was pulled in on the downhill and never really got away with anyone. On the last lap I was finally able to respond to an attack by Graham Nishikawa and keep pushing past to get a little gap on the field. Jess [Cockney] bridged to me and we were able to work together into the first lap of the skate.”

Graeme Killick (AWCA/NST) soaring to a 30 k skiathlon victory at 2014 Canadian Olympic Trials on Jan. 12 in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Angus Cockney)

After that, Killick, who had not raced the previous day’s sprint race, started to pull away.

“I just tried to keep a good pace going and managed to stay strong through the last couple laps,” he explained.

By the end of the race, Killick had extended his lead to just under a minute to take the win. He joins Cockney and Heidi Widmer as another almost shoe-in for the Olympic team.

Cockney faded somewhat towards the end of the race and was caught by the rest of the pack, but he regrouped to win a sprint finish with Michael Somppi (AWCA/NST) for second place. Already having secured a vital win during the week’s trials, Cockney entered the day with a relaxed attitude.

“The day was really fun,” he wrote in an email. “Tactically I just wanted to conserve energy and ski near the front for a podium. I’m happy with the result and thrilled with the week of racing.”

Somppi wrote in an email that he was happy with the day, but overall unsatisfied with his fitness thus far this season. Though the Olympic team is likely out of his reach for this season, he wrote:

“I still don’t feel I am racing at my best, but today was a good step forward. I will take some much needed rest and recovery now and hopefully I can find my top racing form for the second half of the season.”

McKeever, winner of Thursday’s distance race, ended up in eighth and is likely out of the running for Olympic qualification — but the visually impaired skier is a gold-medal favorite at the Paralympics in early March.

Amanda Ammar (Team Ninja) leads Brittany Webster in the 15 k skiathlon on Jan. 12 at 2014 Canadian Olympic Trials in Canmore, Alberta. (Photo: Angus Cockney)

On the women’s side, Ammar gritted out a huge win for herself after finishing sixth on Thursday. Although she wrote in an email that she didn’t feel great energy-wise on the day, she tried to simply “hold on” for as long as possible. Her strategy worked, as the pack was whittled down to three skiers, two of whom Ammar thought she could out-sprint in the end (the other being herself).

However coming into the last few kilometres, she decided to start her sprint with 1 k remaining in the race, and it was all over for the other racers.

Ammar crossed the finish line in 49:16, with Brittany Webster (Mito Canada) five seconds back and junior Anne-Marie Comeau (Pierre-Harvey National Training Centre) at 30 seconds back. All three were over a minute ahead of the fourth-place finisher.

Ammar, while thrilled with her result, is circumspect.

“No matter what happens with the Olympic decision, I will now know that I am just as fast and as fit as the girls going, and I’m at that top level. It’s been a long hard journey for us, and I’m just so proud.”

Webster is equally happy with the week of racing, although disappointed to have finished second on both days of distance racing. She wrote in an email to Fasterskier that,

“I feel great about my [two] efforts, and I know that the way I have trained this year, it should only keep getting better. Of course I am bummed I didn’t have what it took to win on either day, but hey that is racing, and I am really looking forward to working on it for the rest of the season.”

According to a Cross Country Canada press-release, the 2014 Olympic Team selections will be announced Tuesday morning in Calgary, Alberta.

— Gerry Furseth contributed reporting

Video of Canadian Olympic Trials Sprints by TwinZebra Productions

Saturday: Women’s Freestyle Sprint Results | Men’s Freestyle Sprint Results

Sunday: Women’s 15k Skiathlon Results | Men’s 30 k Skiathlon Results

January 13, 2014
Crawford, Thompson, McKeever, and Nishikawa Score Big at Canadian Olympic Trials

The finishing stretch of the men’s freestyle sprint after Widmer’s fall. (l-r) Bob Thompson, Graham Nishikawa, Julien Locke, Jesse Cockney, Phil Widmer. (Photo: Kathy Wylie).

Canada’s Olympic Trials kicked off on Wednesday at the Canmore Nordic Centre with the first of two freestyle sprint races. With perhaps only two spots per gender on the Olympic team up for grabs, there is little room for errors for racers wanting to qualify for the Olympics.

Freestyle Sprint

Chandra Crawford of Team Ninja and the Canadian National Team was dominant in the finishing stretch of the women’s final, taking the win with a 2.4 second gap on the rest of the field. Crawford is prequalified for the Olympic team, but has struggled with health issues over the past year. She told Cross Country Canada that,

“To be able to put it all out there and charge your way to the finish line is what it is all about. It has been a huge effort this year for me to this point, and I’m excited with how today went. I just love racing and it is fun to win today.”

Heidi Widmer and Emily Nishikawa embrace after the women’s sprint final. (Photo: Kathy Wylie).

Finishing behind Crawford was Heidi Widmer of the Alberta World Cup Team (AWCA) and the Canadian National Team (NST). Widmer qualified in first, and looked strong in finishing. Canada is planning to choose one athlete solely off of sprint results, and one from distance results. Crawford’s prequalification puts Widmer in strong position going into the second round of freestyle sprinting on Saturday.

Rounding things up for the women’s podium was biathlete Zina Kocher of Red Deer, Alberta. Kocher has already qualified for Sochi in biathlon, but is also trying to qualify for the cross-country team. Incredibly, she finished in third in an event that she has rarely, if ever, competed in. In an email, she wrote that,

“For my first experience, my heats went great. I love hill climbing so this course is fantastic for me!

My strategy was really just to completely enjoy the day, be challenged by a new experience and do intervals with fast skiers [and] friends! Every heat required a little bit different mindset before starting and thinking about what strategy was needed. I didn’t have any expectations since this was new for me so I just focused on givin’er!”

Jesse Cockney and Phil Widmer collide in the finishing stretch of the men’s sprint final. (Photo: Kathy Wylie).

On the men’s side of things, the results were equally interesting. Up-and-comer Bob Thompson of Thunder Bay had a stellar day to take the win after qualifying in 18^th place.

According to Jesse Cockney (AWCA-NST), the heats were slow on the day, and coming down the finishing stretch all the racers were in a big pack. A tangle in the last 100 meters between Cockney and Phil Widmer (AWCA-NST) left the win up for grabs, and Thompson snagged it. Cockney held on for second, and Graham Nishikawa (NST) ended up in third.

Classic 15/10 K

Racing continued on Thursday with 15/10 k interval start classic racing for the men and women, respectively.

Brian McKeever of the National Para-Nordic Ski Team eked out the win for the men, starting slowly and building into the four lap race.

Brian McKeever in Thursday’s classic distance race. (Photo: Kathy Wylie).

“I could see my splits throughout the race and knew what I had to do. My strategy going in was this is a four-lap race. It is not over after two,” McKeever told Cross Country Canada. “I wanted to get into a good rhythm and keep the pace throughout all four laps. I like to be the guy moving up as the race goes along rather than falling back. It feels very rewarding to know I was able to stick to the plan and it worked out. ”

McKeever is legally blind and, in 2010, was a member of both the Paralympic and Olympic team for Canada in Vancouver. However, he did not get to start any races at the Olympic Games.

Following closely behind McKeever were Graeme Killick (AWCA) and Kevin Sandau (AWCA-NST), 1.5 seconds and 18 seconds back, respectively. Both racers were strong early in the race and then faded a bit as McKeever made his surge. Sandau wrote in an email that,

“Since only race winners are only considered in the final selection, everything is on the line for Sunday[‘s distance race]. But the top [five] from today were relatively tight so anything could happen in the skiathlon. For me, the longer the better so looking forward to Sunday!”

Alysson Marshall, who finished fourth in the classic 10 k, in Wednesday’s sprint race. (Photo: Kathy Wylie).

The women’s race, on the other hand, was not nearly as close. Emily Nishikawa (AWCA-NST) showed early on that she was in top form, dominating the race throughout to win by nearly a minute. Keeping her enthusiasm in check, she told Cross Country Canada that,

“I have put in the work and now put it together for the races and that feels incredible,” said Nishikawa. “The wax was amazing and my skis were incredible today. I’m not going to celebrate just yet. I am going to recover and get ready for Sunday’s race.”

Runner-up Brittany Webster (Mito Canada) was jubilant, however, after being hobbled last season by sickness and early this season by a training plan designed to produce better mid-to-late season results. Using a race strategy that focused on skiing her own race, Webster wrote that,

“Whoo, I am not gonna lie it is nice to have that over with! Honestly, I am not even sure where the time went on that course. I remember every second of it and yet I remember nothing of it too. Is that even possible?” She added, “Emily skied fantastic. She started quite [far] back from me so I had no idea what my back splits were to her. All I focused on was keeping it together and standing up on my skis, and the finish result was the finish result.”

Rounding out the podium for the women was Ninja Zoe Roy. After using the qualifier of Wednesday’s freestyle race as a warm-up for today’s race, Roy skied to a strong third place finish, 1:23 back from Nishikawa.

The Canadian Olympic Trials, which also serve as selection races for U23 World Championships and World Junior Championships, will continue on Saturday with a second round of freestyle sprinting.

Women’s Freestyle Sprint Results

Men’s Freestyle Sprint Results

Men’s Classic 10 k Results

Women’s Classic 10 k Results

January 10, 2014
Sovereign Lake NorAm: Photo Gallery

VERNON, B.C. — Photos from the season-opening NorAm at the Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre, with 10/15 k freestyle followed by classic-sprint races in temperatures near -18 degrees Celsius on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. All photos by Gerry Furseth and Peggy Hung.

Dec. 7: Women’s 10 k and men’s 15 k freestyle individual starts (Race report | results)

Heidi Widmer (AWCA/NST) en route to winning the women’s 10 k freestyle individual start in 33:14.7, 26.3 seconds ahead of Amanda Ammar (not shown) in second.

Emily Nishikawa (AWCA/NST) halfway through her 10 k freestyle race on Dec. 7, in which she placed fifth in the NorAm opener at Sovereign Lake, B.C.

Brian Gregg (Team Gregg/Madshus) on his way to winning the 15 k freestyle individual start, in the Sovereign Lake NorAm races last month.

Matt Liebsch (XC United/Team StrongHeart) racing to second in the Sovereign Lake NorAm 15 k freestyle on Saturday. He finished 3.3 seconds behind winner and friend Brian Gregg (Madshus/Team Gregg).

Kevin Sandau (AWCA/NST) early on in his 15 k freestyle race, in which he placed fifth.

Sandau at the end of his second lap.

Heidi Widmer finishing with the fastest 10 k freestyle time by more than 26 seconds in 33:14.7.

Emily Nishikawa (AWCA/NST) and Anne-Marie Comeau of the Pierre-Harvey Training Centre (c) at the finish.

Graham Nishikawa (CNST) was the top Canadian in third.

Kevin Sandau (AWCA/NST) after finishing 15 k freestyle at the Sovereign Lake NorAm, which started in temperatures around 18 C on Saturday afternoon.

Happy Ninjas, teammates Amanda Ammar (l) and Zoe Roy, after placing second and third, respectively.

A “unicorn” Ninja makes her way to the podium.

Heidi Widmer (AWCA/NST) after winning Saturday’s 10 k freestyle individual start at the opening NorAm at Sovereign Lake, B.C. Two Team Ninja skiers, Amanda Ammar (l) and Zoe Roy (r) placed second and third, respectively.

Top three Canadian men in the Sovereign Lake NorAm 15 k freestyle individual start on Saturday: Graham Nishikawa (c) was third overall, Patrick Stewart-Jones (l) placed fourth, and Kevin Sandau was fifth.

Dec. 8: Women’s 1.2 k and men’s 1.4 k classic sprints (Race report | results)

Early morning at the Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre on Dec. 8, before the men’s and women’s NorAm classic sprints.

Amanda Ammar (Team Ninja) racing to the fastest 1.2 k classic qualifying time of 3:06.4 at the Sovereign Lake NorAm on Dec. 8.

Andrea Dupont (Rocky Mountain Racers) qualifying in second, 2.2 seconds behind Amanda Ammar (not shown), who was fastest in the NorAm 1.2 k classic sprint qualifier at Sovereign Lake, B.C.

Emily Nishikawa (AWCA/NST) qualifying in third, 5.8 seconds out of first at the NorAm 1.2 k classic sprint qualifier at Sovereign Lake, B.C., on Dec. 8.

Heidi Widmer (AWCA/NST) qualifying in fourth, 8.2 seconds out of first at the NorAm 1.2 k classic sprint qualifier at Sovereign Lake, B.C., on Dec. 8.

Alysson Marshall (AWCA/NST) qualifying in fifth, 9.7 seconds behind Amanda Ammar (not shown), who was fastest in the NorAm 1.2 k classic sprint qualifier at Sovereign Lake, B.C.

Raphaël Couturier (CNEPH/NST) putting down the fastest qualifying time of 3:28.6 in the men’s 1.4 k classic sprint the Sovereign Lake NorAm on Dec. 8.

Knute Johnsgaard (AWCA/NST) qualifying in third, 3.6 seconds behind Raphael Couturier (not shown), who was the fastest qualifier in 3:28.6 in the men’s 1.4 k classic sprint the Sovereign Lake NorAm on Dec. 8.

Patrick Stewart-Jones (AWCA) qualifying in 13th in the men’s 1.4 k classic sprint the Sovereign Lake NorAm on Dec. 8

Graeme Killick (AWCA/NST) qualifying in seventh in the men’s 1.4 k classic sprint the Sovereign Lake NorAm on Dec. 8

Julien Locke (Black Jack) qualifying in 13th in the men’s 1.4 k classic sprint the Sovereign Lake NorAm on Dec. 8

Women’s quarterfinals

Andrea Dupont (l) and Brittany Webster (second from l) trail two Canadian Senior Development Team skiers in their semifinal of the NorAm 1.2 k classic sprint at Sovereign Lake on Dec. 8. Dupont qualified in third as a lucky loser, and went on to win the final.

The women’s A-final cruises down a hill along the 1.2 k classic sprint course at the Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre in Vernon, B.C. Andrea Dupont (RMR) won it ahead of Alysson Marshall and Emily Nishikawa.

Dupont leading Marshall (c) in the finishing stretch

(L-R) Emily Nishikawa, Alysson Marshall, and Andrea Dupont head into the finishing stretch of Sunday’s classic sprint at the NorAm opening weekend at Sovereign Lake in Vernon, B.C.

December 10, 2013
Gregg, Widmer Ward Off Cold for Opening NorAm Wins at Sovereign Lake

Heidi Widmer (AWCA/NST) after winning Saturday’s 10 k freestyle individual start at the opening NorAm at Sovereign Lake, B.C. Two Team Ninja skiers, Amanda Ammar (third from l) and Zoe Roy (r) placed second and third, respectively. Brittany Webster (second from l) placed fourth, and Emily Nishikawa (l) was fifth.

VERNON, B.C. — Another cold one at Sovereign Lake kept the organizers and athletes scrambling in temperatures around -20 degrees Celsius, but the end result was an exciting day of racing at the first NorAm of the season.

In the men’s 15-kilometre freestyle individual start on Saturday, American Brian Gregg (Madshus/Team Gregg) rose to the top in 41:03.3 minutes, edging out compatriot and friend Matt Liebsch (XC United/Team StrongHeart) by 3.3 seconds, and Canadian Senior Development Team (NST) member Graham Nishikawa in third (+4.5).

Matt Liebsch (XC United/Team StrongHeart) racing to second in the Sovereign Lake NorAm 15 k freestyle on Saturday. He finished 3.3 seconds behind winner and friend Brian Gregg (Madshus/Team Gregg) and Graham Nishikawa (CNST) was the top Canadian in third.

Coming off a SuperTour podium in West Yellowstone, Mont., last weekend, Gregg said he was very happy with his pacing plan that allowed him to move up from third his last time around the 5 k loop.

“I tried to stay really controlled, and focussed on making each lap maybe a little bit faster,” Gregg said. “Each lap got a lot harder. It was a good strategy.”

Gregg did a solo time trial on the same course two weeks earlier, and said that experience translated to success on Saturday. After the race, he and Liebsch planned to fly back to Montana to race the second SuperTour distance race of the season — a 15 k classic — in Bozeman on Sunday.

Liebsch was pleased with his result, racking it up as another step towards his season goals.

“There is a 30 k skate [at U.S. nationals] that I want to ski very well and prove that I should be on the Olympic squad and start that 50 k skate in Sochi,” he said.

Nishikawa was satisfied with his day, explaining: “The name of the game today was just staying warm and getting through it alive.”

Asked about his expectations for the weekend, Nishikawa said, “I am just here to race and get into top race shape.” After training with the Canadian Para-Nordic Team throughout the offseason as a potential guide for the Paralympics, his target is on both the Olympics and Paralympics in Sochi, Russia.

Top three Canadian men in the Sovereign Lake NorAm 15 k freestyle individual start on Saturday: AWCA teammates Graham Nishikawa (c), who was third overall, Patrick Stewart-Jones (l) in fourth, and Kevin Sandau in fifth.

Patrick Stewart-Jones of the Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) took fourth to lead the U23’s, ahead of Kevin Sandau (AWCA/NST) in fifth.

Heidi Widmer (AWCA/NST) led the way for the women, winning the 10 k in 33:14.7.

“Today was a great start to the season,” she wrote in an email. “Even though the weather wasn’t the warmest, it was such a beautiful day on the trails.”

A couple of Ninjas infiltrated the podium, led by Team Ninja’s founding member Amanda Ammar in second (+26.3). One of Ammar’s teammates and training partners in Canmore, Alberta, Zoe Roy place third another 13.2 seconds back. Racing in their ninja suits, Ammar and Roy snuck ahead of perennial favorites Brittany Webster (Highlands) in fourth and Emily Nishikawa (AWCA/NST) in fifth.

“[Usually] I struggle with skating,” Ammar said. “I think that is one of my best skate results in a NorAm.”

Roy was pleased with third, describing her result as “a step in the right direction.”

The unusually cold weather created challenges for race organizers. The jury announced on Friday that the start would be delayed to 11 a.m. PST. When the volunteer crew finished setting up the stadium and course at 9 a.m., the temperature was still -22 Celsius. The jury then decided to cancel the races for younger groups and start the open categories at noon, which resulted in a race at -18 C.

The younger racers’ distance races were rescheduled for Sunday, between the open sprint qualifiers and heats. Sunday’s start was delayed to 10 a.m.

Many of the racers were not fazed by the cold, but others were visibly affected. What do skiers like the Nishikawas and Graeme Killick have in common, besides a certain resemblance to popsicles at the finish line? All were born in cold communities (i.e. the Yukon, northern Alberta), but have lived in more termperate areas for a number of years.

Saturday’s distance results

Kevin Sandau (AWCA/NST) after finishing fifth overall in the 15 k freestyle at the Sovereign Lake NorAm, which started in temperatures around 18 C on Saturday afternoon.

December 8, 2013
International Couple Top Canadian Nationals Mass Starts; McMurtry Ends Career with Gold (Updated)

Former U.S. Ski Team member Torin Koos (Bridger Ski Foundation/Rossignol) leading Saturday’s 50 k freestyle mass start at 2013 Canadian Nationals in Whistler, B.C. Koos won the race by 0.4 seconds over Brent McMurtry (AWCA). (Photo: Martin Kaiser)

WHISTLER, B.C. – Canadian Cross Country Nationals ended the way it started at Whistler Olympic Park, with exciting racing and sunshine on a freestyle-technique day.

In the men’s 50-kilometre race, American Torin Koos (Bridger Ski Foundation/Rossignol) attacked on the final hill and held on to edge Brent McMurtry of the Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) by just 0.4 seconds in 2 hours, 4:55.2 minutes. His girlfriend, Bettina Gruber of Switzerland, later won the women’s 30 k.

Brent McMurtry of the Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) checks back during the men’s 50 k freestyle mass start at 2013 Canadian Nationals on Saturday in Whistler, B.C. McMurtry went on to place second to American Torin Koos for his second Canadian title of the week. (Photo: Martin Kaiser)

The men’s runner-up by a ski length, McMurtry, 26, ended his season and career as a National Senior Development Team athlete with one last Canadian title (he won the 15 k classic earlier in the week).

His teammate, Kevin Sandau was third, 1.8 seconds behind Koos, and Brian McKeever of the Para-Nordic Ski Team took fourth and the Canadian bronze (+2.2).

The race started at 9 a.m. Saturday at -2 degrees Celsius with the sun starting to rise over the mountains to warm the stadium. The first hour featured hard, crusty snow, with fertilizer making a few climbs hard enough to be difficult for skating. The first lap was the blue 5 k (Olympic skating) loop, then the men settled in for six 7.5-k laps, featuring the first 4 k of the red loop (Olympic class) then the last 3.5 k of the blue.

This was the fifth event and eighth day of cross-country nationals and tired bodies contributed to a relaxed pace on very fast snow (the opening 5 k, with a total climb of 170 meters, was completed by the leader at the time – McMurtry – in just over 11 minutes). The next four 7.5-k laps were completed in about 19 minutes each, with slightly softening snow and increasing intensity resulting in an even pace. An all-Academy pack with McMurtry, Michael Somppi and Chris Hamilton led much of the opening 35 k, while Graham Nishikawa (AWCA) and Koos skied relaxed in the group.

On a slower-starting sixth lap, Somppi tried a push before Sandau made a real attack, but Koos ultimately closed on Sandau.

“I was a little worried; that was the first time I thought maybe I’m not going to have it today,” Koos said. “Two k’s later I felt good again, and I was like, ‘Okay, all right, I know how to win this race.”

Fifteen men were still together at the start of the final lap.

“With 5k or one lap to go, I thought Torin was the guy to mark,” McMurtry said. “I was trying to stay on him, watch him.”

Koos went to the front with about 1.5 k to go and “just slowed the pace to his speed,” Sandau said. “He was definitely one of the guys you didn’t want to bring to the finish line, but he had some good endurance today.”

“I am a little disappointed,” McMurtry said of his second place. “I had the gas at the top of the hill, but I was behind Brian [McKeever] and I didn’t push to get on Koos. He opened up a bit of a gap. Coming into the stadium, I used some gas to catch up to him. In the final stretch, I just didn’t have the legs to get around him.“

“I felt really strong and had perfect skis,” McMurtry said, “I enjoyed the final race of my career.”

McMurtry’s first Nationals win, as a juvenile boy in 2001, was in the sprint where he was beaten by an American, so it was “a fitting way to end my career with a title but also getting beat by an American.”

The men had similar views on the course conditions:

Koos: “It was awesome!”

Somppi: “Conditions were awesome.”

McMurtry: “It was amazing. A perfect day for ski racing in March, or almost April. You can’t really ask for anything more. Sunny, super fast at the beginning, and still held up really well. A perfect way to go out, a super, super day.”

In the junior men’s 30 k, starting just after the open men, national-junior team member Raphaël Couturier of the Pierre-Harvey National Training Centre (CNEPH) attacked with more than a kilometre remaining to take the gold by 8.3 seconds in 1:18.15.4. Matthew Vrielink of Rocky Mountain Racers (RMR) placed second, and Sebastien Dandurand (Callaghan Valley TC) outsprinted four others to take the bronze medal, 18.8 seconds after Couturier.

Gruber Dominates Women’s 30 k

Japan’s Chisa Obayashi (second from r) leads a group after crashing early in Saturday’s 30 k freestyle mass start at Canadian Nationals in Whistler, B.C. Eventual winner, Bettina Gruber of Switzerland (r), runner-up Zina Kocher (l) and Heidi Widmer (second from l) follow. (Photo: Martin Kaiser)

The women’s freestyle mass start began just before noon with the temperatures already up to 9 degrees Celsius and sun on most of the course. Organizers previously fertilized the entire stadium, plus the climbs and corners, to preserve the course and it held up well for the women, with a thin layer of slush over a frozen base for most of the blue 5 k course.

The action started on the first climb out of the stadium with Japan’s Chisa Obayashi (Madshus/Black Jack) taking a hard fall, breaking her pole across both knees, and losing about 40 places. Obayashi quickly rejoined the leaders, finishing the first lap in the top 10.

Bettina Gruber of Switzerland’s National Ski Team en route to her first victory at 2013 Canadian Nationals in Whistler, B.C. Gruber won the women’s 30 k freestyle mass start by over 40 seconds. (Photo: Martin Kaiser)

The second lap quickly separated with a group of four who would ski most of the race together at the front. Heidi Widmer (AWCA), Zina Kocher (Biathlon Canada), Bettina Gruber (Swiss National Team) and Obayashi slowly grew their lead through three laps.

On the fourth lap, Obayashi dropped back, with the combination of a tired body from chasing back to the group on the first lap and swelling knees slowing her down.

On the final lap, Kocher made a hard attack up the first hill out of the stadium and only Gruber followed. By the staircase climb, Gruber was comfortable again.

When Kocher faltered, Gruber was able to ski away for the victory in1:18:41.1, 40.2 seconds ahead of Kocher, the top Canadian, in second. Widmer wasn’t able to close on Kocher, finishing another 19 seconds back in third.

Resurgent Brittany Webster (Highlands Trailblazers) skied two fast final laps and outsprinted Obayashi for fourth place and the Canadian bronze. Eliska Hajkova (University of Colorado-Boulder), who struggled with ski speed as the snow softened, took sixth.

“Until about 15 k, it was four girls together, it was solid speed, a good pace,” Gruber said. “Then it went a little bit faster, and we dropped Chisa.”

“We kept it pretty easy until that final lap and then we really tried to put on the moves,” Kocher said. “The first one I did and dropped Bettina a bit, but she caught me after the downhill and then she made a move on me on the second uphill in the woods and I could go for half of it, and then I was done.”

Zina Kocher (Biathlon Canada) attacks at the start of the last lap of Saturday’s 30 k freestyle mass start at Canadian Nationals. Kocher was the first Canadian and second overall behind Switzerland’s Bettina Gruber (second from l).

“It was a lot of fun,” Widmer said. “I definitely exceeded my expectations as far as 30 k’s go. Really strong girls to ski with; Zina, Bettina, Chisa Obayashi and I skied the first four laps together and then on the fifth lap Chisa dropped off.

“At the end, coming out of the stadium for the sixth lap, Zina and Bettina attacked and I didn’t have the gas to go with them,” she added.

“That race was really fun,” Webster said, despite struggling with the pace from the start. “I was yoyo-ing off the back, got swallowed up by the girls behind and then kind of accelerated again.

“I had the best skis ever, so that was definitely a bonus,” Webster added. “Foothills Nordic did my skis, and yeah, they were phenomenal.”

“After start, I crashed, my pole is broken and I scratched my knees,” Obayashi said. “First lap, I used too much energy, so fourth, fifth, sixth laps, I lost energy.”

Gruber said the conditions were “pretty good. I was surprised, I thought it would be slower and more sluggish, but the track held up pretty well.”

In the junior women’s 20 k, Cendrine Browne (CNEPH) skied away from teammate Anne-Marie Comeau to take the gold by 3.7 seconds in 54:47.6. Biathlete Julia Ransom (Canmore) finished third, 49 seconds after Browne.

While the fertilizer gave the men an extremely fast course and the women a fairly fast course, the sheer volume of younger skiers and a high of 15 C created slushy skiing by the end of the day.

At the end of a long week and a long season, the start list was shorter. There were 79 open men, 45 junior men, 53 open women, 22 junior women, 73 juvenile boys, 82 junior boys, 59 junior girls, 74 juvenile girls, and 14 para-nordic skiers.

More than 150 volunteers made this event possible.

***

Full results and splits are at zone4.ca, with photo galleries coming at the event website.

Results by race:

Men’s 50 k

Junior men’s 30 k

Women’s 30 k

Junior women’s 20 k

March 31, 2013
Canadian Women Take World Champs 10 k for What It’s Worth

Dasha Gaiazova attacking one of several climbs in the women’s 10 k freestyle individual start on Tuesday at the 2013 World Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy. The top Canadian, Gaiazova was 40th.

FasterSkier’s coverage of the 2013 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy, is brought to you by the generous support of Fischer Sports.

VAL DI FIEMME, Italy – Sometimes you just gotta get out there and race. That’s the attitude the three Canadian women went with in Tuesday’s 10-kilometer freestyle individual start at the 2013 Nordic World Ski Championships.

On a day marked by average to so-so performances by World Cup team member Dasha Gaiazova, Alberta World Cup Academy skier Emily Nishikawa, and former national team member Brittany Webster (Highlands Trailblazers), head coach Justin Wadsworth pointed out nothing ventured, nothing gained.

“[We’re] going for good pacing, strong finish and just to stay tough and have the best race possible,” Wadsworth said after the second of three distance races at World Championships. “Where are women are in distance skiing at this time, we just have to really keep focusing on those things and just hope that people have solid races and execute the things that they can do.

“It’s the same focus we have with anybody,” he added. “Just execute your race plan. You can’t go for a certain place.”

Gaiazova, 29, was Canada’s top finisher in 40^th, 2:14.2 minutes back from winner Therese Johaug of Norway. A classic sprint specialist, Gaiazova said she held some hope for the distance event, especially after placing 27^th in a 10 k classic World Cup Jan. 19 in La Clusaz, France.

“Sometimes I race well in distance,” she said. “Today I was definitely trying to race my best, but it didn’t go so well. … It’s just a kind of average day.”

Wadsworth said it was good she raced since she’s only got one World Championships event left: the 4 x 5 k relay with Perianne Jones, Nishikawa and Webster.

“It not only could potentially be a good race for her, it’s good training, too,” he said. “She’s capable of top 30 in a race like today, so she still has to work on her pacing. She’s a little bit too slow out of the start, but she skied a strong second lap.”

After starting 17^th, Gaiazova’s time at the 1.8-k checkpoint ended up ranking 60^th of 77 finishers. By 6.8 k, she improved to the 47^th-fastest time.

Three days after a heart concern caused her to drop out of the 15 k skiathlon, Nishikawa replicated her result from last week’s classic sprint at her first World Championships. She was 57^th again, this time 3:15.3 back from the winner, but less focused on her result, Nishikawa was grateful to race again.

On Saturday, the 23-year-old Yukon native felt her heart beating abnormally early in the skiathlon.

“My heart started [beating] so fast,” she said. “We got it checked out the next day, and if it happens again, we know it’s not dangerous so that was a big relief.”

Given the go-ahead to compete, Nishikawa said she was happy to be out there on Tuesday.

“That in itself was a big success, just to finish the race and push hard,” she said.

Her best World Cup result came in mid-December in Canmore, Alberta, where she was 34^th in a 15 k skiathlon. Also in Canmore, Nishikawa was 48^th in a 10 k classic mass start.

“It’s not the best result but I tried my best,” she said Tuesday. “My first good race in a long time.”

Webster, 25, was less enthused with 68^th (+4:21), but tried not to overthink it.

“My shape is just really bad right now; that’s a year and a half off racing and not training much,” she said. Before having surgery on her leg last fall, Webster took a step back from full-time racing in 2011/2012 and decided to return this season.

One thing she was reminded of Tuesday: this sport is really hard, especially in a place like Val di Fiemme.

“All the climbs are really steep and you need to have some good power to put out there,” Webster said. “Racing on the World Cup kind of blows you away. The fact that for every two of your steps they’re taking one and they’re going another foot forward. Just gotta learn how to do that.”

All in all, “it’s something to go from,” she said. “I have a lot of energy, I just don’t have a lot of fitness. From here you can build. If you’re tired and you go into this, you can’t build from that so at least that’s a positive.”

With the four remaining Canadian women at World Championships looking forward to the relay, Wadsworth said he’ll confer with women’s coach Eric de Nys and assistant coach Louis Bouchard as to what order they’ll choose. Webster said she would like to do one of the classic legs, but would have to wait to hear what the coaches decide.

Results

February 26, 2013
Somppi Wins Another 15 k Skate; Brennan Takes 10 k at Easterns

Michael Somppi (AWCA) en route to winning the 15 k freestyle interval start in his hometown of Thunder Bay, Ontario, last month. Unfortunately for him, the NorAm race was not a World Championships qualifier. (Photo: Martin Kaiser)

If any of the NorAm regulars felt like they were in a scene of the movie “Groundhog Day” on Saturday, you can’t blame them.

For one, the second of the three-day Eastern Canadian Championships took place on the actual holiday, if you can call it that. There were no furry rodents, but Day 2 of racing involved an event that seems to be on repeat. In fact, the 10- and 15-kilometer freestyle has been in every NorAm this season.

More often than not, like in three out of the four NorAms before Easterns, the race was an interval start. That’s exactly what was on tap Saturday in at Nakkertok Ski Club in Cantley, Quebec. What a surprise.

Why so many interval-start skate races? Partly because it’s the opening event at Senior World Championships on Feb. 20, and as we all know, practice makes perfect.

But racing is also unpredictable, and as it turned out, resulted in a few different faces atop the podium Saturday.

In the men’s 15 k freestyle, Michael Somppi of the Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) came out on top after winning the same race two NorAms ago in Thunder Bay, Ontario. He was third in the most recent 15 k skate in Duntroon, Ont., which was qualifier for Canada’s World Championships team.

Just short of a distance spot on the team, Somppi refocused for Easterns. Sixteenth in Friday’s classic sprint, he wasn’t exactly satisfied and came into the 15 k – his bread and butter – with added motivation.

“I wanted to push myself hard from the start until I started to feel the lactate in my legs,” Somppi wrote in an email. “Then I focused on holding that effort level until the final km when I could give anything I had left in the tank.”

As a result, Somppi led throughout the three-lap race, finishing the first loop 2.2 seconds faster than teammate Jess Cockney. By the end of lap two, he was 5.4 seconds up on Cockney and 7.1 seconds ahead of Graham Nishikawa (AWCA), who swept the most recent NorAm distance races/World Championships trials.

“I was getting splits that I was the race leader, but Jesse and Graham were close,” Somppi wrote. “I know what both those guys are capable of so I was giving it my all in the final kms to try to secure the win.”

Somppi captured it in 35:11.5 for his second NorAm victory of the season and his career. Nishikawa placed second, 9 seconds back, and Cockney was third (+18.9).

Aside from Raphaël Couturier of the Pierre-Harvey Training Centre (CNEPH) in fourth (+35.3), the AWCA took six of the top-seven places with Chris Hamilton in fifth, Brent McMurtry in sixth and Kevin Sandau in seventh. David Greer of the Yukon Elite Squad was eighth, Graeme Killick (AWCA) ninth and Andy Shields (NDC-Thunder Bay) 10^th.

Through two races, Somppi, a 24-year-old Thunder Bay native, is currently fourth in the Eastern Championships standings and will start Sunday’s 30 k pursuit 12 seconds behind Cockney as the leader. Nishikawa will start second (+2.0) and Brent McMurtry ranks third (+6.0).

“Tomorrow will be a real battle for the mini-Tour victory,” Somppi wrote. “I’m hoping I feel as good as I did today. My focus for the rest of the season is to continue to fight for the NorAm leader spot. There are potential opportunities for World Cup starts this spring and next fall for the NorAm leader so that is my motivation.”

After starting last, a minute behind Somppi, Nishikawa finished the first lap ranked fifth and 7.6 seconds back. He reined in Somppi and Cockney slightly on the second lap, but lost some ground on the third.

“Today was challenging,” Nishikawa wrote in an email. “It was been a difficult last few weeks with sickness leading into the trial races. I will try my best this weekend in the mini tour, then get ready for [World Championships]. … I am really optimistic about my upcoming opportunities.”

Cockney started 1 ½ minutes ahead of Somppi and skied the first lap and half without splits. Even so, he knew things were going well.

“I felt great so I knew I was in a spot for a good result,” he wrote. “Last week I skied a pretty disappointing 15km and I really wanted to pace this fast from the gun and try to hold on and see what would happen.”

Last weekend in Duntroon, Cockney was eighth in the 15 k and second in the classic sprint.

“I’m really happy with today’s race,” he added. “My distance skiing has been inconsistent over the last few years so I’m really hoping I can string together two good days in a row.”

Men’s results

Multi-stage standings

Brennan Pushes the Pace

In the women’s 10 k, Kate Brennan (AWCA) notched her first NorAm victory of the season in 27:09.1 after placing third in Friday’s classic sprint. Almost exactly a year ago at Mont Orford in Quebec, Brennan captured her first NorAm win in the 5 k classic on what she considered home turf.

Kate Brennan (AWCA) at last season’s NorAm freestyle sprint in Rossland, British Columbia. (Photo: Dan Roycroft/AWCA)

While Brennan couldn’t be reached for comment, it seemed that racing not far from her hometown outside Ottawa once again didn’t hurt. However, in other NorAm distance races this year, Brennan’s been close: she was fourth in the Thunder Bay 10 k and fifth in the 10 k classic in Canmore, Alberta.

Saturday’s runner-up by exactly 5 seconds, Brittany Webster (Highlands Trailblazers) was happy with her result after a whirlwind week in which she was named to the World Championships team along with Emily Nishikawa (AWCA) and Andrea Dupont of Rocky Mountain Racers (RMR).

Last weekend, Webster won the 10 k skate ahead of Zoe Roy (RMR), Dupont and Amanda Ammar (Canmore), respectively. On Saturday, Roy was sixth, Dupont did not race while training in Canmore, and Ammar was once again fourth (after Nishikawa in third).

“Today was tough, my legs were shot, but my shape is good,” Webster wrote in an email. “So I was able, with great skis and a wicked fast course, to ski to second even though my legs felt like bricks.”

After starting two minutes behind Brennan, Webster knew she had some time to make up on the second and final lap: 9.7 seconds to be exact. Through the first lap, Brennan built a 7.2-second lead on Cendrine Browne (CNEPH), and while Browne finished 14.2 seconds back in sixth, Webster came within five seconds of the win.

“I thought I could perhaps close the gap on the second lap so that motivated me to push hard,” Webster wrote. “Then the legs really started to blow so I think the first part of that lap was good, but the second part was tough.”

Nishikawa wrote that she didn’t hear many specific splits, just that she was “really close.” Slower on the first lap than she’d hoped, she rebounded from trailing by 16.5 seconds to finish 5.8 seconds behind Brennan and just 0.8 seconds off Webster’s time.

“I went as hard as I could because I knew it was going to be tight,” Nishikawa wrote.

Still recovering from a cold that kept her from last weekend’s 10 k, Nishikawa was pleased with her result and looking forward to Sunday. She will start 14 seconds after Brennan as the mini-tour leader in the 15 k classic pursuit. Ammar ranks third (+23.0) and Webster will start fourth (+33.0).

Ammar, for one, is excited to get through yet another skate race and move onto a classic distance event. At the same time, she was also encouraged by her recent results after placing fourth in Duntroon and sixth in the Thunder Bay skiathlon.

“I’m super pumped about my skating the past couple of races,” Ammar wrote. “I’m feeling stronger in this technique. Skating is kind of my enemy, and we’ve unfortunately had 3 weekends in a row of the same races- classic sprints, skate distance.”

However, she felt Nakkertok’s course suited freestyle. “There’s a lot of flat, which makes for tons of double pole in tomorrow’s classic,” Ammar wrote. “I love striding, so I’m a fan of big hills.”

Looking forward, she’s hoping to ski more consistently after what she called “a tough start to the season.”

“I feel like I’m getting my energy back, and I’m feeling stronger with each race,” Ammar explained. “I’m looking forward to this half of the season, and I’m trying to end my career with fun and hopefully a trip to the podium.”

Rounding out the top 10, Alana Thomas (Nakkertok) was seventh, Frédérique Vézina (CNEPH) eighth, Andrea Lee (NDC-Thunder Bay) ninth, and Friday’s sprint runner-up, Rebecca Reid (AWCA) 10th.

Women’s results

Multi-stage standings

February 2, 2013
Canada Makes Some ‘Challenging Decisions,’ Announces World Championships Team (Updated)

Brittany Webster (Highlands Trailblazers) and Emily Nishikawa (AWCA/NST) at the Sovereign Lake NorAm in December. Both distance skiers were recently named to the 2013 Senior World Championships team.

(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Andrea Dupont and Brittany Webster.)

One thing you can say about Cross Country Canada when it comes to selection decisions and criteria consideration, they’re one thorough bunch. Two days after NorAm racing wrapped up in Duntroon, Ontario, Canada’s World Championships selection committee reached out to nominated individuals on Tuesday.

The nation’s seven World Cup team members knew they were in, and five others got the email they had been waiting for.

While there were no real surprises, the committee and national-team head coach Justin Wadsworth had to “consider a couple of challenging decisions in selecting the most competitive team,” according to a press release on Wednesday.

In doing so, they had to work within CCC’s selection criteria, and the limitations of World Cup (WC) quota (distance 4 men and 3 women; sprint 4 men and 4 women), World Championships (WSC) quota (4 men and 4 women per event) and their own budget.

Six men and six women were selected to the team – one beyond their originally stated 11-person maximum. CCC High Performance Director Tom Holland explained “the addition and exception was a matter of fairness,” and applied to the selection of two female distance skiers (Emily Nishikawa and Brittany Webster).

All athletes were “nominated for selection” to the 2013 Senior World Championships team, which will compete in the Davos World Cup from Feb. 16-17 and World Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy, from Feb. 20-March 3.

Joining the men’s squad, with World Cup skiers Devon Kershaw, Alex Harvey, Ivan Babikov and Lenny Valjas, Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) teammates Graham Nishikawa (also on the Senior Development Team) and Phil Widmer made the cut.

Nishikawa was essentially a shoe-in after winning both distance races at the World Championships trials over two weekends of NorAm racing in January. In the first in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Nishikawa won the skiathlon. On Sunday, he won the 15 k freestyle individual start in Duntroon, Ontario, to secure his ticket.

One of the sprint favourites, Widmer was somewhat of a unique case after he won the first classic sprint in Thunder Bay then crossed the line first in the A-final at Duntroon. The jury ruled that Widmer’s tangle with AWCA teammate Jesse Cockney near the finish should cost him the victory and relegated Widmer to sixth – last in the heat. Upset with the decision then, Widmer was pleased it didn’t affect his World Championships bid.

“Phil Widmer clearly deserved to be selected to WSC,” the CCC release stated. “[He] was selected for having been the winner of the Lappe sprint race and being the top qualifier in both sprint races.”

“I think it was pretty clear, I didn’t win, I got relegated, but I’ve been skiing well,” Widmer said on the phone Wednesday. “You never know until you know. … It’s pretty exciting, I mean, thankful for the opportunity and looking forward to racing in Europe this year.”

Widmer, 29, has competed at two World Championships previously in 2009 and 2007. At the most recent in Liberec, Czech Republic, he was 30^th in the classic sprint.

“I was on the national team three years ago and from there had to evaluate my ski career and what I wanted to get out of it,” Widmer said. “To work my away back kind of makes me thankful for this opportunity. … To be on the outside looking in, it’s kind of nice to be on the inside again.”

He credited his coaches and staff at the World Cup Academy, which had two other World Championships qualifiers in Nishikawa and his sister, Emily. “It’s really been a good year of training that’s resulting in this,” Widmer said.

One of the more notable absences, Jess Cockney (AWCA/NST) was not nominated despite having placed second in the Canmore World Cup skate sprint qualifier in December. He was ninth overall that day in the sprint.

“The selection committee and the Head Coach also recognized that Jesse Cockney’s results in the sprint trial races, as judged by total qualifying times and final performance, were worthy of selection consideration,” the release stated. “The lack of WC and WSC quota was the defining factor in not being able to select Jesse for this event.”

He will be an alternate, called upon if any of the male sprinters get sick or realize they can’t compete before the event. Cockney has also been selected for World Cups in March in Lahti, Finland, and Drammen, Norway.

On the women’s side, Nishikawa, Webster (Highlands Trailblazers), and sprinter Andrea Dupont (Rocky Mountain Racers) will join the three World Cup members (Dasha Gaiazova, Perianne Jones and Chandra Crawford) on the World Championships team.

Nishikawa, 23, was selected based on force majeure, something beyond reasonable anticipation or control. The AWCA and development-team member sat out Sunday’s 10 k skate with a cold, which she said was a tough decision but one she ultimately had to make.

After winning the skiathlon in Thunder Bay, Nishikawa was in prime position heading into Duntroon’s distance race.

“I had been looking forward to that race for a really long time so I was pretty upset not to race,” she said Wednesday. Fortunately for her, the selection committee reasoned she was one of the best female distance skiers in Canada.

“In order to accommodate the force majeure, the selection committee evaluated the single best distance selection race, based on CPL [Canada Points List] points, of the two winners of the distance trials races – Emily Nishikawa and Brittany Webster,” the release noted. “Emily was selected based on comparing her single best race to Brittany Webster’s best single CPL result: Emily Nishikawa – Lappe skiathlon winner: 90.39 CPL. Brittany Webster – Duntroon 10K skate winner: 89.80 CPL.”

Regardless, Webster – a former national-team member – was also selected.

“Given that Brittany Webster won the second distance 10K skate winner, there was no fair way to judge if Brittany could have been ahead of Emily in the 10K skate trials race in Duntroon,” the release said. “Also considered is that Brittany has had 5 NorAm podiums (up to the end of the Duntroon NorAm), was the top Canadian in the Canmore WC 10K [classic] event and that there are distance quota starts available for women at the Davos WC and the WSC. Based on this examination of performance and opportunity, Brittany was also selected.”

Asked whether she thought she’d make it, Webster wrote in an email that she felt her chances were 50-50.

“It’s always tough when there are so many phenomenal men and women,” she wrote. “I knew Andrea had already gotten a spot, and probably Em too as she is better at sprinting than I am, and I also knew that Jess would be in the mix (I was really rooting for him to grab a spot too). Already, the team spots were filled, so it was a question of whether they were going to take extra people. I am lucky to have some consistent distance results on my side, especially in classic. I knew that would help me.”

The Senior World Championships will be Webster’s first, but she previously made the team in 2006/2007 for the World Championships in Japan. That same year, World Juniors were delayed due to snow and ended up overlapping with senior worlds, so Webster declined her spot.

A U23 World Championships veteran, Nishikawa was looking forward to her first Senior World Championships as well.

“I guess I was relieved because I didn’t race that last race,” she said. “But I felt I raced well and … it was kind of out of my hands.”

As for heading to Val di Fiemme with her older brother: “It’s so awesome,” Nishikawa said. “I’m really happy for him and it’s cool that we’ll both be there together.”

Dupont secured her first trip to Europe for World Cup and World Championship experience after sweeping the NorAm classic sprints in Thunder Bay and Duntroon. Plain and simple: “Andrea Dupont was selected for having been the winner of both of the women’s sprint races,” the release stated.

“I am super excited about the opportunity,” Dupont wrote in an email. “I worked a lot on tactics this year and have finally been able to put together a few good sprints with solid qualifiers and finals. … To me this means that training is actually been effective and the last 4 years of hard work have paid off.”

For a complete explanation and look at CCC’s World Championships selection overview, process and ranking, click here.

2013 Canadian World Championships Team

Dasha Gaiazova – Rocky Mountain Racers -NST

Chandra Crawford – Canmore Nordic – NST

Perianne Jones – Nakkertok – NST

Andrea Dupont – Rocky Mountain Racers

Emily Nishikawa – Whitehorse – AWCA -NST

Brittany Webster – Highlands Nordic

Devon Kershaw – Ona-Wa-Su – NST

Alex Harvey – Club Nordique M.S.A –CNEPH – NST

Ivan Babikov – Foothills Nordic – NST

Len Valjas – Team Hardwood – CNEPH – NST

Phil Widmer – Canmore Nordic – AWCA

Graham Nishikawa – Whitehorse – AWCA

January 30, 2013
Webster Nabs 10 k Victory at Home in Duntroon; Nishikawa Sweeps NorAm Distance Trials (Updated)

Brittany Webster (Highlands Trailblazers) tops the women’s podium in the NorAm 10 k freestyle interval start Sunday in Duntroon, Ontario. Zoe Roy (second from l) was second, Andrea Dupont (second from r) was third, Amanda Ammar (l) was fourth and Alana Thomas placed fifth. (CCC Facebook photo: www.facebook.com/pages/Cross-Country-Canada-Ski-de-fond-Canada)

(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Andrea Dupont.)

Every racer has their beef with one course or another. For Toronto native Brittany Webster, hers was right at home at Highlands Nordic in Duntroon, Ontario.

So much for home-course advantage.

Webster, 25, confronted her quasi-fears and attacked the women’s two-lap course on Sunday, winning in the NorAm 10-kilometer freestyle interval start in 31:44.1. Four years ago at the same venue just a short drive from her home, the Highlands Trailblazers skier finished second in the 10 k classic at Canadian Nationals. She went on to place sixth in the 30 k freestyle mass start – not exactly what she was looking for.

Webster wanted one thing on Sunday – a great race – and her hometown fans helped her achieve that.

“I’ve had some bad experiences even here at Highlands,” Webster said on the phone after winning the NorAm distance race and Senior World Championships trial by 23.4 seconds.

“For me it was [about] just being excited,” she continued. “I wanted to make sure I was just really excited to come here and see my family and see my club and just enjoy my whole time here instead of worrying about racing.”

The spectators, and moreover, all the volunteers calling her name, pulled her through the working course with a few hard sections and several flats. Down by 10 seconds to Andrea Dupont (Rocky Mountain Racers) and about a second behind Alana Thomas (Nakkertok) in third after the first lap, Webster focused on skiing conservatively and relaxed.

“It’s a tough course out there and the snow is soft,” Webster said of the warming conditions on a chilly -7 degree Celsius (19.4 Fahrenheit) day. “There’s a lot of girls that kind of faded away and I didn’t want to be one of those people.”

One of the last starters with all the splits she needed to fuel her, Webster gradually turned it on over the next 5 k, leading by some 20 seconds coming into the finish. Runner-up Zoe Roy (RMR) made up considerable ground on the second lap as well after skiing in fourth, 16.6 seconds behind Dupont.

Best known as a sprinter, Dupont finished third (+32.6) after winning Saturday’s classic sprint for her second-straight victory at the two-part trials. Dupont also won the NorAm classic sprint at Lappe Nordic in Thunder Bay, Ontario, earlier this month, which will likely secure her a trip to World Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy, at the end of February. A team-selection announcement is expected sometime on Monday.

“I am still a little shocked in my distance result,” Dupont wrote in an email on Monday. “Since the Quebec sprint in soft, deep snow I have been working on efficiency in these conditions. My goal for the interval start was to ski relaxed and technically well. I was able to ski relaxed and efficient for the first lap, but my technique fell apart a bit on the second lap.”

While she couldn’t explain it, Dupont explained she came into the weekend relaxed. With the World Championships team announcement looming, she was suddenly feeling more angst.

“It is funny because now I am nervous,” she wrote. “I have done everything in my power as a sprinter to meet the criteria. I am the fittest I have ever been and would be thrilled if given the opportunity to test myself in Europe. But at this point it is out of my hands.”

Webster’s win puts her in close contention with Emily Nishikawa (Alberta World Cup Academy/Senior Development Team) for a distance spot. Nishikawa won the preceding skiathlon at the Lappe Nordic trials, but did not race Sunday because of sickness.

“It was a great race for me,” Webster said after a solid all-around weekend, in which she placed seventh in the classic sprint after qualifying in fifth. “I hope this performance shows them that I’m back in shape again.”

At the skiathlon on Jan. 3 in Thunder Bay, Webster was fourth during which time she was recovering from the flu. “Now that I’m back on track, I’ll hopefully ski more consistently,” she said.

After feeling sick the night before and waking up with a cold, Nishikawa explained that not racing was a difficult decision to make.

“I knew I was sick but I really wanted to race today,” she wrote in an email. “So I went to the race site, and warming up I just knew I wasn’t feeling hundred percent and decided it would be best to play it safe.”

According to her coach, Mike Cavaliere, they reasoned racing was not worth the health risk.

“We will be applying to the selection committee since Emily has been a very dominant female skier this year,” he wrote in an email. “So we believe they will consider her for the World Championships.”

Graham Nishikawa, 29, leading Alberta World Cup Academy teammates, including Jesse Cockney (207) and Kevin Sandau (202) in the Lappe Nordic NorAm 30 k skiathlon in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

While her future is a little uncertain, her brother likely secured his. Graham Nishikawa (AWCA/NST) rolled to his second-straight distance victory at the World Championships trials, winning Sunday’s 15 k freestyle by 32.7 seconds in 40:29.7.

After the first of three laps, he had already built a 17.2-second lead. Teammate Michael Somppi skied in second, half a second ahead of another Academy/NST member Kevin Sandau. By the end of the second lap, the top three remained the same – but Nishikawa was up by more than 31 seconds.

“I was just trying to ski really smooth and technically well,” Nishikawa said. “I didn’t really know I was going up that fast, but then I caught Kevin Sandau on the second lap. I started to get some splits that I was doing well. I tried to keep driving it to the line.”

Sandau started 31.6 seconds ahead of Nishikawa, who went out last. That made catching Sandau a good sign. Sick after Thunder Bay, Nishikawa spent the last few weeks recovering and was a bit nervous about how he’d perform this weekend.

“After you come off sickness it’s either really good or really bad; I’m glad it was really good,” he said.

Without a definite word on whether he’ll make the Canadian World Championships team, Nishikawa tried not to think about it too much.

“I’m very optimistic that things will go well, but I try to win the race and that’s all I could’ve done,” he said.

Sandau finished second, 32.7 seconds back, and Somppi ended up third (+45.3). Starting 30 seconds apart, the two essentially skied parallel races and remained within a second of each other through the first two laps.

“I had tried to start aggressively to make some time early on in the race,” Sandau wrote in an email. “Don’t think I could have started much faster, and Graham had made about 17 seconds on the first lap. He caught me about 7km in and then I worked a bit with him to keep the pace quick.

“I’m happy with second, would of definitely liked to win, but Graham has been racing at another level this year,” he added. “So really happy to see him grab the win and punch a ticket to Italy.”

Second on the distance-rankings list to Nishikawa, Sandau didn’t expect to make the World Championships team.

“It is pretty clear they only have a spot for one at world champs, so I don’t think anything will come of these races in terms of a trip to Europe,” he said.

Overall, the second half of his season was going smoothly, he added. So no regrets.

Somppi also started hard, but didn’t feel as good as he did in Thunder Bay, where he won the 15 k freestyle. One of three events that weekend, the 15 k didn’t count as a World Championships qualifier.

By the end of Sunday’s race, Somppi wrote that he faded on what he considered a “deceivingly challenging” course with two long climbing sections in soft conditions.

“I didn’t actually realize Kevin and Graham were so close behind me until the final km, but I couldn’t have done much about it anyway,” Somppi wrote. “I pushed myself to the limit early in the race and was doing everything I could to hang on in the end.”

Ultimately, he was happy to be on the podium.

“It feels good to be challenging for podium results regularly this season and I hope to continue to find the podium in next weekend’s NorAm events,” Somppi wrote.

Brian McKeever of the Canadian Para-Nordic Ski Team placed fourth (+58.0) and Graeme Killick (AWCA/NST) was 1:10.5 out of first in fifth. Saturday’s sprint winner, Brent McMurtry (AWCA/NST) placed sixth (+1:16.0), Chris Hamilton (AWCA) was seventh (+2:14.8), Jesse Cockney (AWCA) eighth (+2:14.9), David Greer (Yukon Elite Squad) ninth (+2:24.3) and Dudley Coulter (NDC-Thunder Bay) 10^th (+2:25.0).

In the women’s race, Amanda Ammar (Canmore) was 3.1 seconds off the podium in fourth (+35.7), Thomas finished fifth (+36.6), Kate Brennan (AWCA) was sixth (+56.6), Alysson Marshall (AWCA/NST) seventh (+1:23.4), and Rebecca Reid (AWCA) eighth (+1:24.2). Alannah Maclean (NDC-Thunder Bay) was the top junior in ninth (+2:01.0) and teammate Erin Tribe was 10^th (+2:13.3).

Women’s results

Men’s results

January 28, 2013
There and Back Again: Webster Makes Her Return to Skiing

Brittany Webster (bib 53) competing in the Canmore World Cup in December.

When the NorAm season began in Canmore, Alberta, a few months ago, one name jumped out on results as a bit of a surprise. The first race of the year can always produce unexpected performances, but the winner of the women’s 10 k classic was exceptionally so. Brittany Webster, a 25-year-old former Canadian national team member, was winning races again just a year after she’d practically quit the sport.

“I would say I’m surprised,” Webster said in a phone interview in December. “I wouldn’t have expected to come in and start winning NorAms, no.”

The story of Webster’s return to the top of results sheets, if not improbable, is certainly unconventional. It took quitting the sport for her to find a new way to love it; a change in perspective she thinks of as critical to the reignition of her career.

“I came back with a new perspective on training this year: to love the opportunity of being able to ski race in a world that is so fun,” Webster said. “The life of an athlete is great.”

Rewind to her last race of 2011, when at 24 years old the Toronto, Ont., native was burnt out. Webster had gone from posting top-fives at World U23 Championships to skiing inconsistently at the NorAm level. After five years on the national team, the pressure she put on herself to get results had leeched the fun out competing, and her racing suffered.

“I just found that the more pressure I put on myself, the less I actually raced fast,” Webster said. “My results were dismal because I think I was ready to quit.”

And so, just a year after moving to Canmore to train with the Alberta World Cup Academy, Webster took a step back. She got a job, started racing mountain bikes for fun and sought a new way to define herself.

“I just really needed to step away from it to be able to grasp the fact that no, this isn’t who I am, this isn’t my whole life,” Webster explained. “[Skiing] is just something I love to do.”

Still, she didn’t leave the sport behind entirely. The following winter Academy coaches Mike Cavaliere and Chris Jeffries asked Webster if she would come to races to help test skis. She agreed, and it was from the sidelines watching others compete that she realized how much she missed it.

“What really got me was standing on the side of the course and watching everybody else race,” Webster recalled. “And just seeing how much — like, as a racer you can make it into a big deal, but it’s really just fun. All you do, these girls are standing at the start line with a guy who’s timing them, you ski a little loop, and you just go as hard as you can. And I saw that and I was like, ‘Man, if you love skiing it’s so much fun.’ It was just this racing aspect that I needed to get over.”

Another part of Webster’s inspiration was seeing the joy one particular American brought to the racecourse.

“Jessie Diggins was racing [NorAms] at that time and she kind of reminded me of when I was a junior,” Webster said. “She was so sparky; she’d get on the start line and then she’d just go. If she’d been leading by a minute she’d want to lead by two minutes, and it brought back a lot of memories and inspiration to go forward and take that with me.”

Motivated once more, Webster began training again in earnest this past summer. She encountered roadblocks, however, and wasn’t able to do as much as she would have liked. When she started rollerskiing, a metal rod in her leg from an old surgery began to cause uncomfortable bone bruising. Her training was suddenly limited to road biking.

In October Webster underwent surgery to remove the rod, which solved the bruising problem in the long run but put her completely out for another month with only weeks to go to the first race. After a solid four weeks of physical therapy at home in Ontario, Webster returned to Canmore to cram for the season.

“It was fast. From that point in time — late October until the race season started — I just trained really hard.”

In her first month back Webster put in 18- to 20-hour weeks for five weeks in a row. With little time to get herself into race shape before the first NorAm, she had to be extremely efficient with her training.

“If I had two hours on my program I didn’t have any time to waste, so it’s not like I would be out there with my heart rate at 115 the whole time. I’d be working on technique and trying to get things back and working on my left leg, to get it as strong as my right leg,” she said.

Out of necessity as much as preference, she trained mostly on her own. Webster would occasionally join the Academy skiers on workouts but wasn’t officially part of the team. After her surgery Webster needed to stick with her own program, something that was easier done solo.

“Training partners definitely help the time go fast and push you in intensity, but if you’re by yourself the pluses are you can focus a little more,” Webster said. “You can ski at the pace you need to ski at, not slower or faster. And same with intensity; a lot of it was building intensity in zone three, and if you’re doing that with other people it’s kind of hard, because you want to get competitive and push the limits a little bit.”

Whatever it was about her unusual program, it worked. At the Canmore NorAm the first weekend in December, Webster won the 10 k classic by 21 seconds over Japan’s Chisa Obayashi and 28 seconds over the next Canadian, Amanda Ammar. She won the 10 k classic the first day at Sovereign Lake the next weekend and was second the following day to Emily Nishikawa. The results earned her start rights for the Canmore World Cups, where she was 38th in the mass start 10 k classic. Not bad for someone who hadn’t competed much the year before and had surgery in October.

She got sick the night before the Canmore skiathlon and had to skip it, but learned a lot from the one World Cup start.

“The World Cups gave me exactly what I was looking for and felt like I was missing in my racing — really, really skiing to your utmost abilities,” Webster said. “One second in a World Cup generally gives you one placing. It’s tight. So I just took this race as a great reminder of where I want to be, and it showed me exactly how to get there. Ski for every second.”

Like everyone this season Webster’s primary goal is to make Canada’s World Championships team. The team will be announced in late January based on results from Thunder Bay earlier this month and from Duntroon on January 26 and 27. Webster was fourth and fifth in the distance races at Thunder Bay, which alone is likely not enough for a spot on the team, but an outstanding result in Duntroon could get her to Val di Fiemme. And if it doesn’t, Webster said it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

“If I make it, that’s spectacular, and if I don’t make it then it’s another opportunity to keep going for that NorAm spot [on the World Cup],” Webster said. “Another thing I’m going to try to implement now that I’ve gotten accustomed to racing is just try to train more throughout the race season. I lost a lot of time this training season.”

Ultimately, Webster has her sights set on a year from now. “You’re looking forward,” she said. “It’s not just this year. The following year is the Olympics.”

January 18, 2013
Nishikawa Siblings Sweep Skiathlon at NorAm World Trials

Graham Nishikawa, 29, leads some Alberta World Cup Academy teammates, including Jesse Cockney (207) and Kevin Sandau (202), in the skate leg of Thursday’s NorAm 30 k skiathlon in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Nishikawa won the race to earn a trip to 2013 World Championships (Photo: Martin Kaiser)

For the second time this season, the Nishikawa siblings – Emily and her older brother Graham – pulled out NorAm victories on the same day at the NorAm World Junior/U23 Trials in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Emily won the women’s 15 k skiathlon by 9.1 seconds in 45:30.5.

The first time the Nishikawas both topped the podium was at an interval start skate Dec. 9 at Sovereign Lake with a few top domestic racers away at a sprint World Cup in Quebec City. On Thursday, the skiathlon field was slightly stronger as those missing skiers were back to chase points toward a World Championships start opportunity in Val di Fiemme, Italy. Combined with U23 Worlds and Junior Worlds start places going to the first finishers in those categories, this weekend has been highlighted on most domestic athletes’ calendars.

The weather has not cooperated with very little snow falling in the last month. Only a huge effort from Lappe Nordic and volunteers in the local ski community has allowed the race to proceed. The course had to be shortened, which changed both the number of laps and the shape of the races. The senior women did three laps of 2.5 k classic and three laps of 2.6 k skate. The junior women did two laps of each.

Zoe Roy (5) leads Emily Nishikawa in the NorAm leader’s bib during the skate leg of the women’s NorAm 15 k skiathlon on Thursday in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Nishikawa won the race. (Photo: Martin Kaiser)

While the skate loop remained challenging, the shortened 2.5 k classic loop took on a very different character. “The classic course had long downhill and double pole sections with just one climb near the end of the 2.5k loop,” women’s runner-up Alana Thomas (Nakkertok/XC Ottawa) wrote in an email. At least three of the favourites tried and failed to make a split on that small climb.

The flatter classic loop resulted in an unusually large group of 13 women arriving at the transition together. Brittany Webster (Highlands Nordic), who was fourth, already struggling with the cold, got tangled “with another athlete who lost her ski box. Can’t blame her, I’ve done things like that before,” she wrote.

Webster left the transition zone in seventh place, only 7 seconds behind the leading Thomas, but was not able to close the gap. Thomas, one of those who had tried to split field in the classic loop, wasn’t waiting.

“[I] tried to string it out again starting the skate portion and got a gap with Emily Nishikawa and Zoe [Roy],” Thomas said of the third-place finisher from Rocky Mountain Racers. “We skied together switching leads and eating up the big hills on the skate course. Emily gapped us a bit in the last k but it sure was an exciting day!”

Race winner Emily Nishikawa of the Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) had a similar view of the racing. “I’m happy with today’s race, and I felt good,” she wrote. “The classic course was pretty easy with a lot of downhill and flat sections so the pack really stayed together, it was hard to break away in that part. Then in the skate course, I was skiing with Zoe and Alana for the whole time until the last lap where I was able to get a bit of a gap and hold it until the finish. I was confident I could win, and I’m really glad I was able to do that today.”

Thomas was satisfied with her second place. “The race was really fun today and especially satisfying after a slow start to the season so far,” she wrote.

Andrea Lee (NDC Thunder Bay) in seventh led the U23 athletes and qualified for the U23 Worlds. “I was really happy with the way I felt today,” she wrote. “After having a tough time in the races before Christmas, I finally felt like I had my energy back. I struggled a bit in the classic leg, but once I transitioned to skate, I felt much better.”

Frédérique Vezina of the Pierre-Harvey Training Centre (CNEPH) dominated the Junior Women’s category to earn her JW berth and continue her strong run of results from December. Katherine Stewart-Jones (Nakkertok) and Cendrine Brown (CNEPH) came in together for second and third places after spending much of the race in a chase group with Dahria Beatty (Yukon Ski Team) and Maya MacIsaac-Jones (RMR). Anne-Marie Comeau (CNEPH), ranked second after her world cup successes, did not start.

Some of the athletes struggled in the -13C conditions, like Webster, who explained she “felt good warming up today, but the cold really got to me out there, and even at the start of the race I could feel my body contracting slower and slower. By the end, of course , you don’t really notice it, but I didn’t ski or feel like I had much punch. Just cold limbs and frost bite on the toes!!”

Other athletes didn’t mention the cold. One thing almost every racer mentioned was the work of the volunteers. Thomas wrote, “I’ve got to mention how impressed I was with the course, T-Bay really loves skiing and volunteers spent hours and hours shoveling snow onto the race loops to make today possible – all worthwhile and much appreciated!”

Men’s Race

Graham Nishikawa (AWCA) continued what his sister started, winning the men’s 30 k skiathlon at Lappe Nordic by 3.7 seconds in 1:15:51.9. As with the women’s race, all the top domestic racers were there to earn points towards a World Championships start, or U23 or Junior Worlds trips.

The lack of snow in the last month forced the use of shortened courses, with even more laps for the men. Nishikawa wrote that “the course was 12 laps of 2.5km. The classic side was gentle and the skate side was challenging. The organizers did an amazing job getting the course together – there is very little snow here!”

At the end of the 15 k classic, there was a pack of 23 skiers in the transition zone. While it is typical for the men to ski in packs, this was larger than usual. Second-place finisher Kevin Sandau (AWCA) said the shortened classic course “was sort of good and bad – easier to ski easy and relaxed but at the same time there was too much congestion just cause it was harder to break into a smaller lead pack.”

The ‘good’ for Sandau, who was “a bit nervous about the classic leg of the race as I haven’t been as strong in classic this season”, was ‘bad’ for some of the other racers who were stronger in classic. Skiathlons usually slightly favour the better skaters, this course was just a little more skewed that direction.

Sandau was one of the skiers pushing the pace early in the skate leg. “I felt pretty good in the skate leg, and for the first couple laps tried to speed the pace up to thin it out a bit,” he wrote. “Near the 25km mark I knew it was going to come down to the final climb before the stadium for the win, as the four of us in the lead were skiing pretty strong.”

Graeme Killick (AWCA), who was third, Michael Somppi (AWCA) in fourth, Brian McKeever (Para Nordic National Team) in fifth, and Jesse Cockney (AWCA) in sixth also spent time on the front pushing the pace.

Racing on his home trails, Somppi slid back into “seventh or eighth place” after the exchange, he explained. “With the trails not being overly wide, it was difficult to pass and the yo-yo effect made it impossible to get into any sort of rhythm,” Somppi wrote. “I was able to move up to 4th as other skiers faded, unfortunately I didn’t have the energy left for a sprint to the finish line.”

Nishikawa used his experience in the final. “I know the skate course well from previous years- and made my attack on the final climb,” he wrote. “Got a gap and maintained.”

Sandau was happy with his second place: “On the very last climb, Nishikawa attacked and I couldn’t respond, but was able to just edge out Killick after getting in his draft before the finishing lanes.”

Somppi’s lack of energy gave him the best view of the finish. “Graham Nishikawa played it well with a strong surge up the final big climb to secure the victory while Kevin and Graeme fought for silver,” he wrote. Personally, he was also fairly pleased. “[I] am happy to have finished with the leaders, however 4th place is always a tough place to finish.”

Cockney, who was sixth just 2.5 seconds behind McKeever, felt good about his race and is “really looking forward to Saturdays sprint as today shows I have good shape for the weekend,” he wrote. “The last couple laps were just a bit too much for me but I’m happy with the improvement from past years results.”

Andy Shields (NDC Thunder Bay) used his hometown advantage to finish seventh, good for first in U23 and a trip to U23 Worlds.

“My goal was to win the U23 category today and that’s what I did so I’m very happy with how things played out,” Shields wrote. “Skis were superb, both ski selection and wax, so I didn’t have to work very hard in the classic leg – which went out slow anyway. I was able to stay with the lead pack for most of the classic but got into the exchange further back than I wanted to. I was able to catch back up to the lead pack in the first half of the skate and in the process ended up dropping all the U23’s.

“It feels great to qualify for Worlds on the first day of trials. Now I can just concentrate on enjoying the rest of the races by skiing as fast as I can.”

Raphael Couturier (CNEPH) won the Junior Men’s 20 k skiathlon ahead of Alexis Turgeon (CNEPH) and Ezekiel Williams (Nakkertok) to book his ticket to Junior Worlds. Jack Carlyle (Soo Finnish), David Palmer (Black Jack) and Scott Hill (Team Hardwood) completed the group of six that skied the last 5 k together.

Full results at zone4.ca

January 3, 2013