December 12, 2003 -Canada's Jason Myslicki fought hard against some stiff international competition, gaining experience and confidence with every stride, in Saturday's mass start nordic combined race in Val di Fiemme, Italy.

Points were awarded to each athlete based on their finish time in a 10 kilometre cross-country race, that pits the entire field of athletes at the start line together, similar to a marathon road race. Those points are combined with jump points from a single ski jump off the K95 tower to determine the overall winner.

“The first two kilometres of today's mass start was pretty messy, with people stepping on each other and trying to take the lead,” said Myslicki, a 26-year-old, who finished 41st in today's competition. “My body took me as fast as it could through the cross-country course, but its difficult to make up ground in the standings when you only have one jump.”

For the first time this year, Ronny Ackermann of Germany did not win the event. First place on the podium went to Finland's Hannu Manninen with 244.5 points. The other two podium spots were won by a pair of Austrians. Felix Gottwald finished in second place with 241.7 points, while teammate Michael Gruber took third place with 239.5 points.

Canada's Myslicki is now ranked 37th in the World Cup A nordic combined standings and already has one top-30 result under his belt. Heading into the Christmas break, he hopes to recover from some nagging injuries and improve his results in the latter part of the season.

He will now travel back to North America to train in Salt Lake City, USA, before heading home to Thunder Bay, Ont., for some much deserved rest. His next competition is a Gundersen event in Oberhof, Germany on December 30, 2003.

“The season is still young and I've learned so much just at these first five events,” said Myslicki. “I really believe that I have the skills to be up there with the top of the field on any given day. I'm going to build on what I did right and give myself a fighting chance when I get back to Europe.”

1. Finland                 Hannu Manninen          244.5
2. Austria                 Felix Gottwald                  241.7
3. Austria                 Michael Gruber                  239.5
4. Germany         Ronny Ackermann         237.7
5. Germany         Sebastian Haseney               236.0
6. Finland                 Samppa Lajunen          234.5
7. Norway                  Petter Tande                    234.0
8. United States           Todd Lodwick                    232.0
9. France                  Ludovic Roux                    229.7
10. Austria                 Christoph Bieler                        228.0

41. Canada                  Jason Myslicki                  101.7