March 19, 2012 (Mont Ste-Anne, QC) – By the time the open men’s 10km start occurred, the temperature was at its warmest and the track was well traveled by a few hundred other skiers. It was veteran national team member Ivan Babikov skiing for his club team of Foothills who was best able to handle the challenging conditions.

Babikov took gold in 28:38.6 while Rocky Mountain’s Erik Carleton came second at 8.1 seconds back. The bronze went to Michael Somppi of Lappe Nordic, who was 21.8 behind. The next two positions went to New Englanders Eric Packer of Dartmouth Ski Team (28.7 sec back) and Patrick Johnson  of Middlebury College (32.6 sec back). Babikov’s national team mate Graham Nishikawa, who skies for Whitehorse was sixth, 45:4 seconds back.

“Organizers did very good job, most of the time it was too soft for double polling but the uphills stayed in pretty good shape and I was able to stay relax and glide  most of them out. It was very slow and hard conditions, but I’m pretty happy to win – we don’t get to race at the Nationals too often,” said Babikov.

Babikov was ill for much of the World Cup tour and says the illness has set him back. “It’s been a very hard last month or so for me on the WC, I got very sick and it looks like it could take a lot longer to recover. Today it wasn’t a super great feeling, but I won so I can’t complain.”

The top junior man was Knute Johnsgaard of Whitehorse finishing 24^th overall at 2:04.9 minutes back. Kelowna-based Telemark Club skier Jeffrey Kerkovius took the silver at 2:24.6 back while Banff Ski Runners’ Martin Schrama was the third fastest at 2:33.4 back.

Fourth place went to Nicholas Monette of Hardwood at 2:45.7 back. The fifth skier in was David Palmer of Black Jack, while sixth was Geoffrey Richards, also from Black Jack.

Full results HERE.