December 19, 2014 (Sovereign Lake, BC) – Pleasant racing conditions with temperatures just below zero degrees greeted skiers for the Buff CL Sprints at round #2 of the Haywood NorAm series that got underway on Friday at Sovereign Lake Nordic centre.

In addition to valuable Haywood points, spots on the Canadian Team heading to the 2015 Junior/U23 World Championships teams are also on the line this weekend in addition to Senior Development trip opportunities – check the selection criteria for more details.

In the morning qualifications Andrea Dupont of Rocky Mountain Racers led the way in the Open Women’s 1.2km CL event by a 2.5s-margin over Heidi Widmer of Foothills. Widmer has just returned to racing after missing the last two weekends due to illness. On the men’s side, 1.4km CL, Patrick Stewart-Jones of Nakkertok narrowly took the top spot ahead of Whitehorse’s Knute Johnsgaard and Raphaël Couturier of Skibec.

In the Open Women’s final Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt of Fondeurs Laurentide, the top 8th qualifier, triumphed in a close race over Alysson Marshall of Larch Hills with Dupont claiming 3rd at 6 seconds.

With her victory Bouffard-Nesbitt, a U23 athlete, established herself as one of the favourites for selection to the U23 Worlds squad.

“Positives: racing again, good skis @salomonnordic great teammates; Improvements: More fitness, more snap and more racing #workwhatyougot”; Big ups to Olivia and Patrick for those W’s,” commented Widmer.

On the Junior Women’s side Skinouk’s Sophie Carrier-Laforte took the title, moving up from 4th in qualifying to defeat Annah Hanthorn of Whitehorse and Mont Ste. Anne’s Marie Corriveau by a comfortable margin.

In the Junior Men’s race Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier, another Fondeur Laurentide skier, came through for the victory by a narrow margin over Big Thunder’s Angus Foster. Skibec’s Phillippe Boucher was 3rd.

In the Open Men’s final Nakkertok’s Stewart-Jones came through for the victory over Bob Thompson of Team Hardwood who took second place slightly ahead of Raphaël Couturier. Stewart-Jones made it 4-for-4 for Quebec earning the top step on the podium today.

Ottawa-based, Stewart-Jones, has been hard to beat in classic sprinting this year adding today’s NorAm to his U.S. SuperTour win in Bozeman, Montana earlier in December. Couturier was the top U23 finisher today.

Qualifications

Sprint Bracket results

Final results.

Tomorrow’s races are free-technique, interval start events.

Updates to follow.

Tomorrow’s races are free-technique, interval start events, check back here for those results and the Canadian team’s results from the Davos World Cup races.