February 05, 2019 (Duntroon, Ont.) – The final day of racing at Highlands Nordic, featured skate pursuit races. There was a bit of freezing-rain and rain today, as the temperatures warmed up to the +3 deg. C range by race time. A stark contrast from Thursday’s weather.

Alexis Dumas of Skibec had a 16-second lead at the start, but he was quickly caught up by a chase group of 3, led by Andy Shields (Lappe), Jack Carlyle (Soo Finnish) and Phil Boucher (Skibec).

The pack was still together on the first of 2 laps, with Jack Carlyle falling and having to regain the group around the mid-point. On the 2nd lap Jack Carlyle pulled away, aided by some really fast skis, to win the race by a 20 second margin. Phil Boucher was 2nd and Andy Shields 3rd, another 25 seconds farther back.

Pierre Grall-Johnson (Nakkertok) made it three wins in a row in the Junior Men’s class with Orford’s Olivier Léveillé 2nd and Derek Deuling (Whitehorse) finishing 3rd.

In the women’s race, Zoë Williams (Nakkertok) had a 37 second advantage and she held the lead for the first lap. The racer winner however was Chelsea Nordiq’s Laura Leclair, who came from a 1:18 deficit, to win by close to a minute, her 1st NorAm win. 3rd was Annika Richardson from Lappe.

Bronwyn Williams (Nakkertok) had a comfortable victory in the junior women’s race, ahead of “Time on the Day” winner Shaylynn Loewen of Georgian Nordic. 3rd was Alexandra Racine of Orford.

When the final results were all tallied, Ontario beat Quebec to the Eastern Canadian Championship Divisional title, significantly based on their Para-Nordic strength.

That concludes some great racing at Highlands Nordic, with the next big event on the domestic calendar, the Western Canadian Championships at Kelowna, BC, starting on Friday.

Results