January 19, 2010 (Hinterzarten, Germany) – Arriving on Thursday evening (Jan.14), training on Friday and racing on Saturday. Talk about efficiency. That’s how they roll over here in Europe. All of the athletes, luggage and ski bags arrived safely, thank goodness! We traveled from Calgary to Toronto, Toronto to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Zurich and then drove from Zurich to Oberried, Germany. We are staying here for this weekend of racing and then traveling next to Livigno, Italy for a week of altitude training.

There are seven Academy athletes joining the rest of the Canadian team on this European tour. Our main purpose is the World Junior/U23 Championships in a week’s time. We were given the opportunity to try out the race courses ahead of time this weekend at the Notschrei Nordic site. There were 15 Nations present at this weekend’s DSV Joska Jugendcup, which roughly translates into a FIS sanctioned NorAm.

On Saturday, we managed to stay awake all day for the 1.2km Skate Sprint race. The venue, conditions and organization are excellent here. The trails are wider than most of the mountain roads, which allows for lots of maneuvering on the sprint course. Kate Brennan threw down in the qualifier, posting the fastest women’s time. Emily Nishikawa was the 9th fastest Senior qualifier and Heidi Widmer posted the 3rd fastest Junior time. In the Men’s, Joey Burton was the 19th ranked Junior in his first European race, with Jess Cockney just missing the heats as the 35th qualifier in a strong men’s field. Kevin Sandau and Marlis Kromm didn’t race the sprint today, but spent their time efficiently analyzing the 5/10km courses and testing skis to make the most of tomorrow’s race.

In the afternoon, there was ample time between heats. If you moved past the quarter final, you had over an hour to recover for your semi finals! A lot different from the average 20 minute wait in Canada. The Academy athletes put out their best fight in the afternoon heats. Emily Nishikawa and Joey Burton narrowly missed qualifying past the quarterfinals after a good fight and finished 9th and 19th overall. Heidi Widmer and Kate Brennan battled it out in both the A and B finals of the Junior and Senior categories, finishing 3rd and 8th overall respectively.

On Sunday, the conditions changed very quickly. Overnight there was a heavy rainfall, which deteriorated some of the snow and glazed the track. It proved to be some tricky waxing conditions, but the Canadian wax techs pulled through even after some last minute changes to the klister kick. The Academy had three of seven athletes suit up for the 5/10km classic race. Even with the tricky conditions and demanding course, the Academy athletes posted strong results. Kevin Sandau 18th, Joey Burton 25th and Marlis Kromm 12th.

For full results check here.