November 15, 2012 (Canmore, AB) – After gearing up with the WinSport Frozen Thunder event, presented by Buff, the National Ski Team (NST) is ready to take on the world this weekend, with FIS competitions in Bruksvallarna, Sweden.

Racing action starts Friday with short, classic, distance races. Saturday includes longer distance skating events and they are followed by skating sprints on Sunday. Schedule

The majority of the team have been training in Ostersund, Sweden for the past week, with Dasha Gaiazova and Ivan Babikov making the trip over from Calgary on Tuesday.

The skiers will be racing one or two of the three races depending on their program. As they are arriving shortly before the competitions Dasha is expected to only race Sunday`s sprint, and Ivan to compete in the Saturday skate race. Ivan will be joined by Devon Kershaw, who will only race the skate race due to a minor ankle injury.

Perianne Jones, Chandra Crawford, Alysson Marshall and Alex Harvey are planning on entering the classic race and sprint, with Kevin Sandau racing both distance races. Kevin and Alysson qualified for the trip as the Haywood NorAm leaders from the spring. Lenny Valjas will be spectating as he continues to recover from a broken finger.

Check back later for updates and results.