March 20, 2012 (Mont Ste-Anne, QC) – Emily Nishikawa flew around a soft course as the Open Women were last to race on a day that was better suited for bike racing. After hundreds of skiers and brilliant sunshine the race track was likened to mush. Still Canadian U23 Team skier, Nishikawa, who hails from Whitehorse, beat a posse of Canadian, American, Norwegian and Brazilian national team athletes chasing her down, with a time of 32:03.0 in the Women’s 10km Freestyle Interval Start.

The silver medal went to Larch Hills skier, Alysson Marshall, just back from her first WCup stint, at only half a second back, while third went to Ragnhild Haga of Norway’s U23 team at 8.1 seconds behind. The next Canadian, and therefore the bronze medalist of the day, was Perianne Jones of Nakkertok, at 11.0 seconds back.

American Caitlin Patterson of the University of Vermont raced to fifth spot at 49.1 seconds back and Brazilian skier Jaqueline Mourao surprised the field with a sixth place time at 55.2 seconds behind Nishikawa. National team skier, Chandra Crawford, who arrived in Quebec City late the night before, took 7th at 1:11.0 back.

“Winning today was really special for me. I’ve been looking forward to this race for a while. I’m really happy with how things worked out,” Nishikawa told SkiTrax. “My grandma is here watching me race for the first time, so it was awesome to have her and my parents out cheering today.”

When asked about how the slow snow and warm weather affected her Nishikawa responded, “I’m glad I didn’t overheat in the race! I’m looking forward to the next two races of the week.”

The first Junior woman to take the gold medal was Maya MacIssac-Jones of Rocky Mountain who was tenth overall at 1:24.8 minutes back. Grabbing the silver was Rebbeca Reid of Black Jack in 11th at 1:31.3 behind the winner – two very strong finishes in a field of over one hundred skiers. Janelle Greer of Whitehorse scooped the bronze finishing in 19th at 2:32.6 in an incredibly tight race for the final spot on the podium.

Julia Ransom from Canmore, of Junior Biathlon fame winning silver at the IBU Junior Worlds, finished 4th at 2:33.7 while fifth went to Frederique Vezina at 2:33.9 back. Less than one and a half seconds separated the three athletes racing for the bronze. Cendrine Brown of Fondeurs-Laurentides took the sixth spot, 3:18.1 minutes back.

Full results HERE.