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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: NorAm freestyle sprint

Cockney Nabs Third NorAm Sprint Victory (updated)

Jesse Cockney (AWCA) races to a sixth-place finish in the 15 k freestyle pursuit at the Western Canadian Championships in Canmore, Alberta, on Jan. 22. Photo courtesy of Angus Cockney.

Note: This recap has been updated to include quotes from third-place finisher Harry Seaton.

Heat after heat, Jesse Cockney may have been racing around the same 1.4-kilometer sprint course in Cantley, Quebec, but in his mind, he was at the U23 World Championships on Friday.

Cockney, 22, had been trying to visualize what it would be like in Erzurum, Turkey, ever since he officially qualified for the U23 trip in mid January. It helped that the NorAm circuit provided a variety of terrain for the Alberta World Cup Academy member to practice tactics on.

Two weeks ago at the Western Canadian Championships in Canmore, Alberta, Cockney faced a new course on his home turf, just as hilly as ever. Transitioning to the Eastern Championships on Friday, he discovered the Cantley course was similar to last year’s: flat and fast. That was good for Cockney; he won the freestyle sprint there last year.

Aiming to hang back and ski relaxed, just like he did in the final a year ago, Cockney found ways to win his quarterfinal and semifinal. The second-fastest qualifier after Brent McMurtry (Pierre-Harvey NTC), Cockney primed himself for the A-final.

Starting out in third or fourth, Cockney said in a phone interview that he made his way to second behind Drew Goldsack (Rocky Mountain Racers). At the final climb, Cockney saw his opportunity to overtake the leader and pushed the pace until the finish.

Cockney went on to win the final – his third in five NorAm sprints this year – despite McMurtry’s push to stay with him. He nipped McMurtry at the line, and Harry Seaton (NDC Thunder Bay) crossed the line just behind them in third. It was Seaton’s best NorAm result of his career.

“Brent and I were definitely right with each other on the last corner coming in with about 100 meters left,” Cockney said. “I had a couple solid free skates and I think I put a small gap on Brent and … I think [Harry was] pretty close.”

“I just worked hard to put myself in a good position near the front,” Seaton wrote in an email. “[I] skied really smart and made the best of the opportunities that came my way. … Being a bigger guy I like the power courses.”

Russell Kennedy (Canmore) was fourth and Graeme Killick (AWCA) finished fifth ahead of Goldsack, who had severe shoulder pain when someone stepped on his pole before the last climb. The two-time Olympian and World Cup skier has been coping with a rotator-cuff injury since crashing in the A-final at the NorAm sprint in Whistler, British Columbia.

“I couldn’t put much power through my arm or move it very quickly for a few strides due to the pain,” Goldsack wrote in an email. “By that time it was too late, a gap had opened up. I was also hurting quite a bit at that point so I wasn’t able to close the group.”

Cockney said the pace in the A-final was especially slow from the start and probably ended up being the slowest heat of the day. That made timing more important. Cockney was still learning how to push the pace early without blowing up.

“I have led in a lot of [heats] and kind of got burned at the end,” Cockney said. “[I was] just trying to relax and let someone else lead and make moves in smart places and put myself in a spot to kind of come down to that last 100 meters and trust my legs.”

Perhaps just as importantly, Cockney trusted his skis and said they helped determine when to make his moves on the hard-packed course.

Best known for his distance results, McMurtry exploded out of the gate for his first-career NorAm qualifying win. He went on to nab second place for the sixth time in a NorAm race this season.

After winning the quarterfinal and placing second to Killick in the semifinal, McMurtry wrote in an email the final went as he’d hoped.

“I wanted to come down the last hill and into the stadium in second position and slingshot around to take the win,” he wrote. “This all went [according] to plan other than I was not able to get around Jess. He was pretty fast coming into the finish so I had to settle for second.”

For McMurtry, the result was a good start to the three-day mini tour, in which he is trying to secure his top spot in the NorAm standings. Kevin Sandau (AWCA) as the runner-up was eighth in Friday’s sprint behind B-final winner Matt Wylie (AWCA). Dudley Coulter (NDC Thunder Bay) was ninth and Pate Neumann (AWCA) finished 10^th.

***

Competition resumes Saturday with the women’s 10 k and men’s 15 k freestyle interval starts.

Men’s overall sprint results

February 4, 2012
Marshall Captures First NorAm Victory of Season

Heidi Widmer leads Alberta World Cup Academy teammates Alysson Marshall (center) and Emily Nishikawa (right) in the semifinal of the NorAm 1.2 k freestyle sprints at the Canmore Nordic Centre in Canmore, Alberta, on Sunday. Marshall went on to win the A-final, Widmer was second and Nishikawa was fifth. Photo courtesy of Angus Cockney.

Three months may not seem like a long time, but Alysson Marshall couldn’t wait much longer. Since her first race of the season on Nov. 13, the Alberta World Cup Academy and Canadian Senior Development Team member had aimed for the top spot on the podium.

Maybe she didn’t expect it in Europe, especially at World Cup races in Kuusamo, Finland, and Düsseldorf, Germany, but she wanted it at home.

In six of eight NorAm races this season, Marshall finished either second or third. She was the runner-up in five of them, including every NorAm sprint before Saturday’s 1.2 k freestyle final at the Western Canadian Championships.

There in Canmore, Alberta, she initiated change.

Aware of her teammates’ racing styles, she hung on to one in particular: Heidi Widmer (AWCA). The second-fastest woman in the qualifier after Andrea Dupont (Rocky Mountain Racers), Widmer won her quarterfinal and semifinal, and Marshall knew she’d be a good person to follow in the final.

As Widmer led once again, Marshall remained close behind, waiting for the slingshot she knew was coming on the last downhill into the stadium. On the last turn, Marshall said she took a better line and made her move. Widmer couldn’t recover and Marshall won the A-final by 1.01 seconds in 2:36.56. Widmer placed second and Marlis Kromm was third, completing the AWCA podium sweep.

“It was very exciting to cross the finish line and not have one or two people in front of me,” Marshall said in a phone interview. “I was in second until the final turn and sort of ended up in front.”

That was easier said that done, as Marshall found out last weekend at the NorAm races in Whistler, British Columbia. There, Widmer took the lead from the start and created a big enough gap on her contenders to seal the win in the 1.4 k freestyle sprint.

Despite missing another victory by a second, Widmer said she was satisfied with her result.

“My goal today was to be the top U23, so I pulled that off,” Widmer said. “It’s great that we have three Academy [women] on the podium [and] four of us in the final.”

After DuPont, who placed fourth, Emily Nishikawa rounded out the AWCA podium crew in fifth. Heather Mehain (Sovereign Lake) was sixth in the A-final.

Widmer said having teammates in the final helped in several ways. When she led in the semifinal with Marshall and Nishikawa right behind her, Marshall lightly pushed on Widmer’s poles to keep her distance and Widmer’s momentum going. In that way, they could ski tightly together with ease.

“It adds a level of comfort, but also a level of we know where we can push each other,” Widmer said. “We know each other’s strengths and each other’s weaknesses.”

Widmer said she tried to catch Marshall’s draft after she passed her in the final, but it didn’t work. Regardless, she said the race was a good test and affirmation of her fitness.

Kromm was also excited about placing third in a photo finish with Widmer. It was the second open podium of Kromm’s career after the 21-year-old placed third in last weekend’s sprint at Whistler.

Sitting in fifth before the final descent on Saturday, Kromm said it wasn’t a bad position to be in.

“I also didn’t panic too much,” she said. “From that corner, it’s kind of a short tuck into a free skate then a two skate into the finish. … I felt quite good in both my quarter and semi; I had just enough to keep it together on that downhill.”

Heading into Sunday’s 10 k freestyle pursuit, Marshall looks to be the woman to beat with a 15-second head start on Nishikawa, who ranks second, according to Western Canadian Championships standings on Zone4.ca.

“I’m just going to have to go out as hard as I can and see if I can hold the other girls off tomorrow,” Marshall said. “I’m sure it’s going to be tight.”

Women’s freestyle sprint results

January 21, 2012
Cockney Trusts in Tactics, Skis to Secure Sprint Win

Jesse Cockney (AWCA) leads No. 122 Steffan Lloyd (Nakkertok) and No. 129 Patrick Stewart-Jones (AWCA) in a quarterfinal heat of the NorAm men's 1.4 k freestyle sprint at the Canmore Nordic Centre in Canmore, Alberta, on Saturday. Cockney went on to win the A-final. Photo courtesy Angus Cockney.

The fifth man at the top of the last hill leading down into the stadium, Jesse Cockney was fairly confident he’d win the final. The 22-year-old Canadian Senior Development Team member had a few things going for him – knowledge of the course, confidence in himself and confidence in his skis.

Cockney’s calculations played out, as the Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) skier slingshot past his competitors and kept the lead to the finish of the NorAm 1.4 k freestyle sprint in Canmore, Alberta, on Saturday.

Cockney won the A-final in 2:54.07, about three-tenths of a second ahead of teammate Phil Widmer (+0.31). Brent McMurtry (Pierre-Harvey National Training Centre) was third in the final sprint to the line (+0.92), trailing Cockney by 0.92 seconds.

Jesse Cockney of the Alberta World Cup Academy and Senior Development Team after winning the NorAm 1.4 k freestyle sprint at the Canmore Nordic Centre in Canmore, Alberta, on Saturday. Photo courtesy of Angus Cockney.

“I really like skiing the sprint course in Canmore because it always comes down to that finishing stretch,” Cockney said in a phone interview after his second win in four NorAm sprints this season. “Getting a chance to live and train here, we get to practice that a lot. … We kind of know how the course flows.”

He also knew how his boards would run, or at least his coach told him to have faith in them. Exhausted after leading and winning his quarterfinal, Cockney said he went to his sprint coach, recently retired Olympian Stefan Kuhn, for advice.

“I was kind of nervous about doing that again,” Cockney said. “I talked to Stef between the quarter and the semi and kind of decided I wasn’t going to do that anymore. … I have amazing skis in Canmore and I wanted to let them do the work.”

The skis and the sprinting know-how worked for several other Academy skiers as well, with four AWCA men making the A-final. Graham Nishikawa finished fourth, Graeme Killick was fifth and Russell Kennedy (Canmore) was sixth.

“We have a good team with a lot of strong skiers and some older ones as well that have been able to provide some leadership and perspective,” AWCA head coach Chris Jeffries said. “You put them in a head-to-head situation and they’re pretty tough.”

A seasoned veteran, Widmer put down the fastest qualifying time of the day, and Cockney was second in the qualifier. In the final, Widmer said he took a more direct line in the last descent’s sharp turn, which inadvertently put him in front of McMurtry and the rest of the pack. As Cockney tucked in behind the front two, Widmer knew what Cockney was doing and wished he had been in a similar position.

“I’m relatively happy [with second], but I think tactically, I would have liked to ski a little different,” Widmer said. “My game plan was to be in the top three, not leading into the downhill. I ended up leading into the downhill … I had to try to recover from the slingshot effect and didn’t have the legs to keep up with Jess.”

No stranger to the Canmore Nordic Centre, McMurtry watched Cockney take the smartest route into the stadium as well. Regardless, McMurtry as the NorAm and Western Canadian Championships mini-tour leader was pleased with how he executed the sprint, especially for a distance guy.

“I wanted to be in a position at the top of the hill to be in contact, but I didn’t want to be in the lead,” he said. “I was pretty happy with how I skied tactically.”

After winning Friday’s 10 k individual start by more than 21 seconds, McMurtry said he felt the burn of another challenging course at Canmore on Saturday.

“I don’t know what I did [yesterday], but my hamstrings were really sore. I don’t ever get that from classic skiing,” McMurtry said with a laugh. “I figured everyone’s legs were just as tired.”

McMurtry won’t get much of a break as the first man to start in Sunday’s freestyle 15 k pursuit. According to Western Canadian Championships multi-stage standings on Zone4.ca, McMurtry will start 40 seconds ahead of the second man, Kevin Sandau (AWCA), who was 10^th in the sprint after making the B-final.

“It’s a hard course again tomorrow, one that I’ve raced lots of times,” McMurtry said. “For me, it’s important to pace it and stay smooth. … If it does come down to Kevin catching up to me, I’m going to leave a little left in the tank so I have something left in the finish.”

That was different than McMurtry’s recent tactic of going out hard and staying ahead. While that helped him win the last two races, it cost him others, he said.

“I want to ski a distance race where I know that the last lap is really going to matter,” McMurtry said.

Men’s freestyle sprint results

January 21, 2012