January 10, 2014 (Duntroon, ON) – On Saturday, the sprinters took to the trails at Highlands Nordic to compete in 1.5/1.8km classic events. The longer courses and slow conditions made breaking away difficult, which kept the leaders together until late in the race and made for an exciting day of racing.

Jones at the finish © Jenn Jackson

For the women, it was National Team skier Perianne Jones (Nakkertok, NST) who claimed decisive victories in both the qualifier and final. This is her first time racing on the NorAm circuit since 2011, and she says it came as a welcome change.

“It’s always nice to race back in Canada. My whole family was out today and it was lot of fun,” commented Jones.

Jones was able to control the pace in her the heats before skiing away from everyone in the final. Yet she still wasn’t entirely sure how things would play out. “I had no idea how close anyone was to me in the final so I just put the pedal to the metal – but I was really scared that someone was going to try and pass me!”

Open Women's podium © Jenn Jackson

While men’s sprint winner Jesse Cockney (Foothills, AWCA-NST), and NorAm leader’s Patrick Stewart-Jones (Nakkertok, AWCA) and Alysson Marshall (Larch Hills, AWCA-NST) packed up their bags right after their races to head over the Europe, Jones will return to Canmore after the weekend for some more racing and training.

“My start to the World Cup season this year wasn’t great and I want to make sure I’m in really good shape before I head back over there. Even though things seemed to go well today, I can’t guarantee that would have been a top 30 on the World Cup – so I’m not ready to go back over there until I know that’s the case.”

Jesse Cockney © Jenn Jackson

Jones was joined by Andrea Dupont (RMR) and Cendrine Browne (Fondeurs-Laurentides, CNEPH-NST) on the podium. This was Browne’s second U23 victory of the weekend, which leaves the competition open for the remaining spots on the World Championship team in Sunday’s individual skate race.

The open men’s race saw Bob Thompson (Team Hardwood, NDC Thunder Bay) take the top spot in the qualification, followed closely by Raphaël Couturier (Skibec, CNEPH-NST). While Cockney’s qualifying time may have been misleading at 4.6s behind Thompson, the eventual race winner was happy just the same.

“It was one of the best qualifiers I’ve had in years! I fell and broke a pole and had to chill on the side of the trail for a bit before I got a new one. I felt awesome; it was so easy to push through the qualifier but the fall kind of fubar’d me a little bit…”

Open Men's podium © Jenn Jackson

Cockney was quite candid about his racing, generally pleased with how he felt despite the difficulties he encountered in qualification. Having achieved a sprint top 30 in the Davos World Cup earlier this season, he will be returning to Europe for a second round of races. Contrasting how he feels now, going back to race World Cups, to previous trips he’s overseas, he said:

“The biggest thing is confidence. It’s one thing to go over there and try to participate and see how things go, but now it really feels like I’m confident at getting to the start line of a World Cup and having a top 30 (he had two close misses during Period 1). I really feel like I’m in a good spot for the rest of the year to keep trying to fight for points and hopefully move up and be more relevant than I was last time in the heats.”

Junior women's podium © Jenn Jackson

Men’s NorAm leader Stewart-Jones will also be heading to Europe for World Cup racing as he finished second just ahead of Thompson in the A-final. The rest of the heat was rounded out by U23 skiers Sébastien Townsend (Nakkertok, AWCA), Knute Johnsgaard (Whitehorse), and Julien Locke (Black Jack). As the top U23 skier, Townsend earns a spot on the World Championship team.

In junior racing it was a day for the top qualifiers. Maya Macisaac-Jones (RMR, JNST) and Julian Smith (Georgian Nordic, NDC Thunder Bay) took top spots in both qualification and final heats, securing them tickets to Kazakhstan for the Junior Worlds.

Macisaac-Jones proved her mettle today in the sprints after a difficult Skiathlon race on Thursday. Confident in her form in classic skiing, she didn’t want to leave anything to chance in the final.

Junior men's podium © Jenn Jackson

“I just went as hard as I could right from the start. I knew the conditions were pretty slow so once I got a gap I just kept the pressure on and held it right to the finish.”

Smith also struggled in Thursday’s Skiathlon, finishing a distant 23rd, well off the pace.

“After Thursday’s race, the biggest thing was to control my thoughts after the race and until today because I knew I could either dig myself a hole or get myself out of the divot I had and keep things positive.”

Staying calm and in control, Smith posted the fastest qualifier ahead of teammate David Askwith (Georgian Nordic, NDC Thunder Bay), who eventually finished 6th on the day, and had a strong finish to pass and hold off Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier (Fondeurs-Laurentides) and Joey Foster (Team Hardwood) for the victory.

“In my mind, the other guys weren’t going to “out-want it” from me, so when I passed them going over the last hill I didn’t look back and just pushed hard right to the finish.”

And with the final day of Junior/U23 Worlds selection races Sunday, skiers will be taking it right to the line in 10/15km senior and junior 5/10km individual skate races.

Results

Senior Women

1.    Perianne Jones
2.    Andrea Dupont
3.    Cendrine Browne*
4.    Emily Nishikawa
5.    Alysson Marshall
6.    Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt*

Senior Men

1.    Jesse Cockney
2.    Patrick Stewart-Jones
3.    Bob Thompson
4.    Sebastien Townsend*
5.    Knute Johnsgaard*
6.    Julien Locke*

Junior Women

1.    Maya Macisaac-Jones
2.    Katherine Stewart-Jones
3.    Annah Hanthorn
4.    Sophie Carrier-Laforte
5.    Anne-Marie Comeau
6.    Andrée-Anne Théberge

Junior Men

1.    Julian Smith
2.    Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier
3.    Joey Foster
4.    Philippe Boucher
5.    Alexis Dumas
6.    David Askwith

Full results here.