February 3, 2006 – It was a photo finish at the finish line, and one with a distinctly North American flavour, when Canada’s Amanda Ammar hustled to an impressive seventh-place finish in the 10-km pursuit cross-country ski race at the Under-23 Junior World Championships on Friday.

The Onoway, Alta. native crossed the finish line in a time of 30:04.1 to finish in a tie with Elizabeth Stephen of the United States. Their shared time was just fractions of a second over eighth-place Anna Simberg of Sweden.

“All I ever wanted to do was get a top-30 finish, so I’m overjoyed with my performance,” said Ammar, who was in fourth place after the classic portion of the race. “The pace was actually quite nice in the classic leg. On the skate leg, I just tried to focus as much as possible to stay with the girl ahead of me.”

And considering the strong performances unleashed this past week by Canada’s junior and under-23 cross-country contingents, including her own fifth-place result on Wednesday in the junior women’s five-km classic, Ammar said she had ample motivation going into today’s race.

“It’s amazing how good Canada has been doing at these events. Seeing how great all the athletes have done is very motivating,” she said.

Brittany Webster also posted a strong result by finishing 28th in the field of 75 competitors. Despite her rookie status – and the fact she lost a pole in the classic portion – the native of Collingwood, Ont. turned heads by recording the 22nd-best time during the skate leg of the race, and ultimately finished with an overall time of 31:11.1.

In other Canadian results, Kate Brennan finished 66th with a time of 33:40.0, while Hannah Perry was 69th after clocking in at 34:09.1.

Taking the top spot on the podium was Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla, who posted a time of 29:12.2 en route to the gold medal. She was followed by silver medallist, Betty-Ann Bjerkreim Nilsen of Norway, who clocked in at 29.21.8, and bronze medallist, Eva Nyvltova of the Czech Republic, who tallied 29:38.8.

In junior men’s pursuit action, Alex Harvey continued his fine form by recording a 17th-place finish in the 20-km event with a time of 53.25.2 – which was only two minutes off the mark set by the winner, Norway’s Petter Northug. Harvey, who’s from St. Fereol des Neignes, Que., was in 12th place before suffering a fall at the five-km mark of the classic portion, which ultimately cost him 20 to 30 seconds.

The 17th-place finish followed Harvey’s impressive 16th-place sprint result on Tuesday and further demonstrated his great potential, considering he has two years remaining of junior eligibility.

In other Canadian results, Thunder Bay, Ont. native Chris Butler executed a strong performance on the skating leg to finish 30th overall, while Haakon Lenes and Brent McMurtry finished 55th and 62nd, respectively.

Rounding out the top podium finishers among the junior men was Russia’s Ilia Chernousov, with the silver, while the Czech Republic’s Martin Jaks skied to the bronze medal.

The FIS Under-23 Junior World Ski Championships resume tomorrow with the under-23 pursuit races.