December 14, 2009 (Vernon, BC) – Here’s a selection of additional photos from the Haywood NorAm Sprints held on Sunday, Dec. 13 at picturesque Sovereign Lake near Vernon, B.C., won by Canada’s Phil Widmer and Dasha Gaiazova – for more on the sprints click here.

Sovereign Lake Wrap Up Report – Vancouver 2010 in Sight
Canada’s Dasha Gaiazova and Gord Jewett took a major step forward in securing their spots on Canada’s Olympic Cross-Country Ski Team by finishing as the top Canadians in the Haywood/Teck NorAm Series races at the Sovereign Lake this weekend.

Gaiazova won the women’s sprint race on Sunday and claimed second in the 10km freestyle distance race on Saturday. Jewett took a fourth place finish in the men’s 15 km freestyle distance, being the first Canadian in.

Jewett’s competition was very high this weekend with US Garrott Kuzzy setting the pace. “Fifteen km skate, it’s right up his alley, definitely something he’s targeting for the Olympics…it suits him,” said the American coach Pat Casey. “Gord skied well today, Garrott was just on another level.”

Kuzzy had home snow advantage having come to Sovereign to train at altitude in November.
“It was a fun day, I felt really strong,” said Kuzzy, “I’ve been training for this event in particular. I don’t feel like I’ve peaked yet. The Canadians are strong, and they’re good competition.”

Brian McKeever also competed against Jewett in Saturday’s qualifying race. “My race was solid, and it was what I had today. Maybe 16 sec too short, but it was great for Gord, it was his best race, and when I asked him about it afterwards, he said that it was his one chance, so good for him.”

McKeever is continuing his quest to become the first winter-sport athlete to compete at both the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in 2010. After a 7th place finish in Saturday’s Open Men’s race, McKeever is looking forward to the 50km distance race in Canmore. “I didn’t have an extra 16 sec in me, maybe it’s in my head still or maybe it’s in my body, but hopefully it (shows up) in 10 days when I hit the 50k in Canmore, which is what I do, so hopefully it’s there.”

In the sprint competition, the top-30 athletes after a qualification round advance to the head-to-head heats, which has six athletes racing head-to-head. The top-two athletes in each race move onto the next round.

In the Men’s sprint race, 26 year old Philip Widmer, who is one of the country’s strongest sprint athletes and competed at the 2006 Olympics, fought his way across the finish line to defend home snow a split second ahead of Kuzzy, who until Sunday’s race had only lost one race this season.

“It was a good day for me despite the qualifying round not going well for the team as a whole, but to get two Canadians on the podium is great,” said Widmer. “My energy was good today. I was nervous after not qualifying well but things got better in the first heat. I gained confidence as I went along and it was great to get Garrott at the line. I have a lot of respect for him.”

The Olympic excitement rubbed off on Sovereign Lake racers Allyson Cummings and Heather Mehain as they finished third and fourth in the Junior sprint race.

“We has some positive performances and positive results,” said Sovereign Lake coach, Darren Derochie, “For Heather it is encouraging…one of the goals was for her to improve her technique and stay healthy and injury free. She’s worked hard at doing that this year, and that is allowing her training to become more consistent.”

“Allyson Cummings has done a good job of putting in the training volume that she needs to be competitive in the long run. She skied technically really well and with a few races coming up in the next few weeks, that will help bring up her race fitness.”