February 04, 2017 (Soldier Hollow, UT) – Canada’s Gareth Williams delivered a strong 11th place finish followed by the USA’s Wyatt Gebhardt in 12th in the Junior Men’s 20km Skiathlon on Friday as Russia’s Vladislav Vechkanov picked up his second gold medal at the Junior Worlds in Utah.

Norway skied to the silver and bronze medals with Thomas Helland Larsen in second at 1.9 seconds back, edging out his countryman Harald Oestberg Amundsen who settled for third at 2.2 seconds behind.

“A lot of the top guys were dropping to the back of the pack early to save energy so I followed their lead, and did the same in the classic portion of the race. I pushed the pace as we got closer to the transition,” said Williams, a 19-year-old Kelowna, B.C. at 1:24 behind the winner.

In the classic segment it was a battle between Norway and Russia, with Italy’s Simone Dapra also engaging the lead group. Russia’s Egor Kazarinov led at the equipment change with teammate Vechkanov close behind along with Amundsen also in the mix.

“My transition was really smooth and much better for me than in training. I actually think I gained a couple of spots and then held my position in the top-10 for most of the skate leg. I just ran out of energy at the end, and lost out on the top-10 by one spot in the end. The skis were amazing today. The wax techs did an exceptional job making them super fast,” added Williams.

In the freestyle phase, Vechkanov hung back for a bit with Dapra taking the early lead before the Russian made his move and held the lead to the finish. Vechkanov also won the gold medal in the men’s 10k freestyle on Wednesday.

The USA’s Hunter Wonders  of APU Nordic was a solid 18th; Canada’s Philippe Boucher made the top-30 finishing 26th; Ryan Jackson was just outside the top-30 placing 31st; Remi Drolet was 49th; the USA’s Kamran Hussain was 50th and his teammate Logan Diekmann was 53rd.

Results here.