December 13, 2004 – Canada’s Chris Jeffries and Milaine Theriault were both golden for a second straight day in cross-country ski racing at the Haywood Canada Cup in Forêt Montmorency, Quebec on Sunday.

The weekend’s double-golden performance from Jeffries and Theriault secures both of them a spot on Canada’s Cross-Country Team at the World Championships in Germany in February.

The 26-year-old Jeffries, who dominated most of the men’s 20 kilometre skate event, crossed the finish line at a time of one hour 20 minutes 9.3 seconds, more than one minute faster than his closest competitor.

“I wanted to make a bit of a statement with today’s race that I’m ready to push for a decent campaign at World Cup this winter,” said Jeffries, who is gunning for a first-place overall finish on the Haywood Canada Cup this season. “I wanted to have a good race and be in the lead right from the start. My hamstring started to really tighten up two kilometers into the race, but I just tried to relax and find my groove in order to ski well the rest of the race.”

While Jeffries topped the men’s podium, three-time Olympian Milaine Theriault of St. Quentin N.B., who has been getting back into prime racing form after having a baby just over a year ago, was crowned the women’s champion for the second day in a row. Theriault finished the women’s 15 kilometre skate competition in a time of 43:4.6 seconds.

“This is the first 15 kilometre race of the season, coupled with heavy snowfall, so I was pretty tired in the end,” said Theriault following the awards ceremony. “I kind of prefer this length of race because I am not a sprinter, and I perform better in longer races. Its been a great weekend.”

Joining Theriault on the women’s podium was Edmonton’s Tara Whitten in second place, who clocked in at 43:38.2, followed by Shayla Swanson of Calgary, who finished the race in third with a time of 44:62:6.

Rounding out the top three on the men’s side was Ethan Foster of the United States, who crossed the line at 1:21:38.9. Dan Roycroft of Port Sydney, Ont., was in third at 1:21:61:3.

Sunday’s event, loaded with the countries top skiers not at the World Cup, marked the completion of the second of five races which are being used to determine Canada’s team at February’s World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany. The Haywood Canada Cup continues on Wednesday in Forêt Montmorency, Que. with sprint racing.