February 6, 2006 – David Zylberberg, who spent 3 years skiing for Carleton University then traveled west to Banff, overcame a 45 second deficit from the 10 km classic race on Saturday to beat Stefan Kuhn in the open men’s pursuit race today at the Haywood Canada Cup / Eastern Canadian Cross-Country Ski Championships. Zylberberg’s combined time of 1:13:10 included a 15 km skate time of 41:14, the fastest on the day. Erik Carleton of Calgary, who started in 7th position after the classic leg, rounded out the podium.

In the open women’s event, Tara Whitten of Edmonton made it a perfect weekend by out-sprinting Shayla Swanson of Calgary recording a combined time of 49:26.6. Brooke Gosling placed third in the open women’s portion of the Eastern Canadian Cross-Country Ski Championships. The event again featured over 530 competitors from every region of Canada.

In the Club and Provincial Challenge, sponsored by Atomic, the winners couldn’t be named until the results of the final race were completely tabulated. Eventually it was a happy team from Skibec who where awarded the Club Challenge, earning more aggregate points than host Nakkertok and Skielite. Ontario earned aggregate honours over Quebec in the Inter-provincial Challenge.

Although mother nature threw everything possible at the event, there was unanimous praise for the efforts of host Nakkertok Ski Club for challenging tracks, great atmosphere and superb organization.