March 14, 2018 (Thunder Bay, Ont.) – It was another cool sunny day at Lappe Nordic in T-Bay, as the 2nd day of the Pursuit took place with the 10/15km FR races that get combined with Intervall Start CL race times on Day 2 for the overall Pursuit time.

In the overall Pursuit for Senior women, Caitlin Gregg of the U.S. came back from a 13-second deficit, to handily win the women’s overall title by over a minute ahead of Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt of Fondeur Laurentides. Annika Hicks of Canmore won the silver medal and Nakkertok’s Katherine Stewart-Jones the bronze. Gregg had the fastest time on the skate portion, ahead of Frédérique Vézina of Mont Ste. Anne.

The men’s 15km race was close until the finish, with Jesse Cockney of Foothills edging ahead of Canmore’s junior skier, Ty Godfrey at the line by 1.2 seconds. Local favourites Lappe’s Michael Somppi and club mate Evan Palmer-Charette, were the 2nd and 3rd seniors, within 1.5 seconds of Godfrey.

If you look at Canadian NorAm circuit results over the last 5 or more years, there are very few 15k skate races where Michael Somppi isn’t on the podium, so there was little surprise he registered the fastest time for the 2nd segment, but only by a .1 second margin over Ty Godfrey.

Antoine Cyr of Skinouk and Reed Godfrey were 2nd and 3rd overall for the juniors.

There was another medal for the local fans, as Kai Meekis of Big Thunder won the Junior Boy’s race and in the Junior Girls, Mont Ste. Anne’s Roxanne Vermette led a procession of 9 B.C. across the line to win gold.

Juvenile honours went to Thomas Stephen of Foothills Nordic and Marielle Ackermann of Kimberley.

Next up on March 14 are the “long sprints”.

Pursuit results here.