December 14, 2018 (Canmore, AB) – The Haywood NorAm circuit started off it’s 2nd stop with AltaGas sprints at Alberta’s Canmore Nordic Centre. Temperatures were just below zero for the qualifiers, with many athletes vying for a spot on the Canadian Team at the World Jr./U23 Championships in Lahti, Finland, Jan 20-26.

The qualification criteria for the team the team are outlined in the selection criteria, but in general 5 athletes are to be selected in the women and men’s Junior and U23 classes, with the race winners selected to the team.

Last weekend in Sovereign Lake, Dahria Beatty of Whitehorse and Katherine Stewart-Jones of Nakkertok were battling it out for status as the top Canadian and today had a similar trend. Dahria won the qualifier by over 4 seconds and prevailed in the final by 2 seconds over Stewart-Jones. 3rd in Open Women was local skier Maya Macisaac-Jones of Rocky Mountain Racers.

For the U23 class, Marie Corriveau of Mont Ste. Anne looks to be the front runner for a U23 Championship selection, 6th overall, with Sadie White of Big Thunder and Zoë Williams of Nakkertok filling out the top 3, U23.

In the junior women’s race Anne-Marie Petitclerc of Mont Ste. Anne made the double of top qualifier and heat winner, over Molly Miller of Black Jack. 3rd was Foothills Nordic’s Anna Pryce. Petitclerc as well likely secured a place for herself on the World Junior team.

In the junior men’s category, Black Jack’s Remi Drolet, claimed the top qualifying time and the win over Tom Stephen, by a bit over a second. Stephen’s Foothills teammate Xavier McKeever came 3rd. The 2 Foothills skiers have several more years of junior eligibility remaining while Drolet looks to have claimed a spot on the World Junior team.

The final competition was the Sr. men’s category. Julien Locke was the top qualifier, with 5 of the men finishing with 1 second of each other. In the final Bob Thompson of Team Hardwood came through with the win, a bit over 2 seconds ahead of Big Thunder’s Angus Foster, who edged out Locke by 1/100th of a second.

The next 3 were U23 skiers with Big Thunder’s Graham Ritchie in 4th (likely claiming a World Championship spot), followed by Julian Smith of Georgian Nordic, 5th and Olivier Hamel, of Skibec in 6th.

Next up on Saturday, individual start, skate races.

Full results here.